By Paul Sakkal
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suggested he is unlikely to add to a busy global election calendar by sending voters to a federal poll this year, a period in which he pledged to turn the blowtorch on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and ease the pain caused by high inflation.
After a turbulent second half of 2023 marked by a dip in support for Labor, Albanese outlined his new year agenda at a press conference in Sydney on Wednesday, saying he was feeling “very positive”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday laid out his government’s top priorities.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Asked if he would call an election later in 2024, Albanese pointed out that a poll was due by May 2025 and emphasised his view that “our terms are too short with just three years”.
“We’re focused on governing during the year,” he said, noting the large number of important elections this year including in the United States, United Kingdom, India, Taiwan and Indonesia.
“If you go around the world, there are more elections, democratic elections, this year than at any time in global history. That’s a good thing. Some of those are very important.”
The prime minister referenced the unsuccessful 1988 referendum in which the Hawke government attempted to shift from three to four-year terms.
“Our view, our long-term policy, and we’ve put it to the Australian people [in the 1988 referendum] is for four-year terms. But I don’t anticipate that happening any time soon and I think that’s unfortunate,” Albanese said.
The government does not have a double-dissolution trigger to call an early election. With that option off the table, Albanese could hold an election before August this year only if he broke with decades of tradition and held separate House of Representatives and half-Senate elections.
Albanese, elected in May 2022, began his press conference with an appeal to return the treasured baggy green cricket caps of retiring batsman David Warner.
He then listed his government’s top priorities: creating 300,000 more free TAFE spots, new solutions to reduce the cost of living, making home buying easier, boosting Medicare, growing Australian manufacturing, continuing the shift away from fossil fuels, and creating closer ties with other nations.
Late last year, Labor backbenchers and unions called for fresh thinking on policies to ease the cost of living for Australians, who have faced soaring consumer prices since a global outbreak of inflation prompted by pandemic-related supply shocks and the Ukraine war.
“We asked [the departments of Treasury and Finance] to give consideration to … the measures that can take pressure off families on cost of living without putting pressure on inflation,” Albanese said.
“That’s the key issue here: if you were just to distribute additional cash to people, you potentially make inflation worse and therefore don’t help to solve the problem.”
Albanese was pressed on whether he had pondered any changes to the government’s operating style. He did not answer in the affirmative and instead noted he would aim to institute positive policies and “point out that Peter Dutton has no solutions and nothing positive to offer the nation”.
“The Nationals and the Liberals, no matter what you are talking about, have just one response. They have negativity, they have a failure to put forward any practical solutions. They just say what they’re against, never what they’re for,” he said.
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