Multiple Albanese government ministers are lucky not to be fired

It’s been an amazing decline for the Albanese government, which seems distracted, unfocused and out of ideas.

Anthony Albanese seems too arrogant to realise he’s in trouble.

Why didn’t he use these holidays to replace the duds in his ministry?

The Albanese government has been rapidly falling in the polls to now be about level with the Opposition, which a year ago looked unelectable.

It’s been an amazing decline, caused by more than Albanese’s disastrous preoccupation last year with his racist Voice – an Aboriginal-only advisory parliament rejected by 60 per cent of Australians at a referendum that cost $450 million.

The Albanese Government has been rapidly falling in the polls. Picture: Martin Ollman

Add to that Albanese’s incessant foreign travel for little result, his cost-of-living crisis, and his shambolic climate policies that do nothing but increase power prices.

It’s all made the government seem distracted, unfocused and out of ideas.

Worse, in two areas – immigration and Aboriginal affairs – his ministers seemed downright incompetent.

A tough and clear-eyed prime minister would have used the Christmas break to replace the strugglers with some of his ambitious backbenchers, giving them the holidays to get up to speed in their new jobs.

Most obviously, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney should have “retired”, especially after she last year offered the excuse of health trouble.

Linda Burney should have ‘retired’. Picture: Martin Ollman

Not only was her handling of the Voice referendum inept, Burney has since showed she’s clueless. She hasn’t had one fresh idea on how to tackle the poverty and the sudden increase in violence in towns such as Alice Springs and Wadeye.

For God’s sake, give someone else a go – Assistant Minister Malarndirri McCarthy or someone less trapped by Labor’s dead-end brand of victim politics.

I’d also have shifted Chris Bowen from Climate Change and Energy to where he’d do less damage.

Many Labor MPs still think global warming is a religious cause, but Albanese should realise Bowen’s blind crusade is fast turning into a disaster that will be hung around Labor’s neck for a generation.

Chris Bowen should have been shifted from Climate Change and Energy to where he’d do less damage. Picture: Martin Ollman

It’s already guaranteed that the Liberals will run ad after ad at the next election reminding voters of Albanese’s laughable promise to cut power bills by $275.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles should have been dumped for freeing 148 foreign criminals from immigration detention without any proper safeguards. Sure, Australians may forget that scandal over summer, but can Albanese risk having a minister who cocked up things that badly and communicated even worse?

Other ministers are also lucky not to be fired, and the question now for Labor MPs is whether Albanese is just weak or in a dangerous denial.