‘Delulu with no solulu’: PM Anthony Albanese’s seriously cringe blunder

Four words from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sent young Aussies into a meltdown – but there’s more to the story.

OPINION

In the aftermath of a critical election budget, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attempted to sling a modern-day zinger across the table to the Liberal Party, denouncing his enemy’s economic plans.

“Mr Speaker,” he tried to quip, “they are delulu with no solulu”.

It reads like something that might fall out of your mouth after too many Mai Tais in Honolulu.

Have a moment – or a Mai Tai – for the poor bureaucrat trying to populate Hansard to immortalise Mr Albanese’s expression that’s currently battling the red squiggle correction line on Microsoft Word, insisting that “delulu” and “solulu” are not legitimate words.

Bring back the days of Paul Keating’s acerbic clap-backs.

A cursory view of Mr Albanese’s asseveration would be that it was merely an off-handed comment.

However, the blunder is symptomatic of a greater issue infecting a significant amount of the political spectrum: a struggle to talk to the audience.

You don’t need to be the Don Draper of Collins Street to know that identifying your target market is the first crucial step to successful advertising.

And yet, our major parties and most visible politicians all seem to be staggering under a crippling identity crisis that is demolishing their ability to communicate with any punters, let alone their own political prey.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Opposition was ‘delulu with no solulu’. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

And who is the audience, during Question Time? Formerly, it was simply the composition of the house – with the exception of the exchanges that would permeate mainstream media when amplified by TV, radio and newspaper journalists in time for the 6pm news or first run of the papers.

Nowadays, Question Time has transformed into an opportunity to have a crack at an eviscerating sound bite, or rapidly generate social media content for your office or party.

Consequently, pollies have more opportunity to try their hand at broadening their appeal to a wider audience.

Unfortunately for them, though, a look around the grounds shows that some don’t, uh, quite know who comprises their target audience.

For a party that already largely attracts young people, Mr Albanese has no need to adopt language of the youth.

Its incongruence from a politician speaking in parliament is only exacerbated when political frustration is approaching crescendo, with many Australians buckling under the cost of living crisis.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also had an awkward moment … or two. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

We don’t want pollies who speak with the most up-to-date lingo; we want politicians who use clear language to deliver tangible solutions.

If anything, forcing language that doesn’t fit pushes voters away.

Equally, though, more verbose politicians like Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull also risked alienating their audience by speaking with overly complex language.

And Mr Albanese isn’t the only current victim of the language fumble. In his campaign for the Lodge, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton suggested a referendum to grant politicians the power to deport dual citizens who committed serious crimes.

It was a proposal that quickly needed to be tidied up by the Opposition, especially as it was coming from a man whose protestations during the Voice referendum in 2023 showed he seemed quite averse to them.

Moving to the more progressive side of the political spectrum, Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather made an awkward misstep onto the stage of a CFMEU rally in late August.

It seemed an uncomfortable choice of crowd to address – how many Labor faithfuls in that group, proudly donning their union colours, were suddenly going to re-prioritise the Greens over Labor?

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather also made an awkward misstep recently. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

While it’s a critique that’s haunted the Teals since their sweep into parliament in 2022, the pressure to formally galvanise as a party or assert themselves individually as steadfast independents is mounting.

This pressure only increases with questions looming about their political allegiances with the major parties, and their relationship with Climate 200.

Ironically, politicians can often deftly articulate why their nemesis is the wrong candidate for their seat – but can’t enunciate what makes themselves or their party apparently so alluring.

The tight Prahran and Werribee by-election results illuminated a warning to the parties: there are no laurels to be rested on anymore.

Ultimately, the language pollies are employing isn’t necessarily the problem here.

Rather, it’s the fact that politicians are losing sight of who their target demographics are and floundering to find ways to reconnect with them.

To steal a Paul Keating classic, weak political messaging is “all tip, no iceberg”.

Imi Timms is a writer