Instead of wading his way through his briefings, Albo, like Donald Trump, prefers to have things explained to him
Nothing else except ignorance can explain the strange complacency Anthony Albanese has been exuding lately.
James Campbell
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A complaint Canberra insiders have been making for a while about the Prime Minister is that he “doesn’t read”.
By this I don’t mean the latest Nick Hornby – he’d be all over that – but the papers the public servants put in front of him.
Apparently, instead of wading his way through his briefings, Albo, like Donald Trump, prefers to have things explained to him.
Maybe no one tasked with keeping him up to date has had the courage yet to tell him what the polls say.
Because nothing else except ignorance can explain the strange complacency he’s been exuding lately, telling people in private that after the next election, not only will he not be in minority, he’s going to have at least 10 seats to spare.
It also explains why a man who should be looking for all the friends he can find has been behaving the way he has with people who displease him.
The following anecdote contains descriptions of the mistreatment of Canberra Press Gallery journalists, which I understand may bring pleasure to most readers. I tell it only to illustrate the pettiness of which our Prime Minister is capable.
Last week a plane-load of hacks flew with Albo to Rio de Janeiro on the RAAF Airbus.
It’s a long flight, which was going to be much longer for the journalists up the back in economy, rather than the taxpayer-funded folk up forward.
In the past when there was space, it has been the custom for journos and camera operators to take turns getting some sleep in the spare business class seats up forward that can be stretched out into beds.
I say in the past because some time after Albo took over, this practice was banned.
Nowadays everyone is made to stay where they are put, as befits the preferences of a Prime Minister who treats aeroplane seating arrangements with reverence.
Please, the hacks begged, could an exception be made this time, as it was a very long flight and they would be working the moment they hit the ground?
We’ll see what can be done, his staff replied, but despite there being half a dozen empty seats up forward, it was no dice.
As you can imagine, this rather peed the journalists off.
What really gave them the irrits, however, was that during the long trip back to Canberra from Rio, which included a stop in Mauritius, Albo wandered up the back and, in an obvious dig at the reporting of his recent troubles in this space, said words to the effect, “I hear you lot have asked for an upgrade”.
Obviously he’s free to treat people he doesn’t like as he likes, and he’s hardly Han Solo is disliking the press gallery – indeed, according to some accounts these seats were only installed back in Abbott-time to make sure the media sat in economy – but it’s not the wisest way to treat people who get to opine about your performance. Not when you’re travelling as badly as he is.
The conventional wisdom in Canberra right now – remembering that conventional wisdom there is a fast-moving beast – is the most likely scenario after the next election is that though Albo gets back he’ll need the support of the Teals and, if he’s unlucky, the Greens as well.
That’s because looking at the polls at the moment, while Peter Dutton is ahead – 51-49 in the latest Freshwater and Newspoll – he’s not far enough ahead to govern in his own right or even in minority with an independent MP minded to support him.
The critical bit of the previous sentence, however, is “at the moment”.
Because if you look at the average of published polls, the trend since the start of last year has been of steadily falling support for the government and towards Dutton, with the latter taking the lead some time in the past two months.
Obviously there’s no guarantee this trend will continue at this steady pace, but if it does, by next May the Coalition’s two-party preferred vote will be easily high enough for Dutton to be moving into The Lodge.
In other words, the best time for Albo to have an election was three months ago and the second best is as soon as he can.
The best thing going for him at the moment are some of the political numpties on Dutton’s frontbench.
Step forward, Sussan Ley – who in voting down free TAFE last week forgot about Medicare and the NDIS or indeed the local primary school and told parliament “remember this – and it’s a principle and tenet of the Liberal Party – if you don’t pay for something, you don’t value it”.
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