Albanese and Dutton ready to launch in campaign that lacks deep ideas

On Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will officially launch their campaigns. This electioneering quirk, whereby a campaign launches officially a few weeks after it begins, is more a nod to symbolism and tradition than anything else. No doubt both leaders will declare a major initiative to ovations from their backers, but as a catalyst or prime mover in the campaign, it is more circus than bread these days.

Two days after the launches, postal voting opens; pre-poll voting centres open a week later. Given the rising trend in people using these methods, each passing day will reduce the impact of whatever Albanese or Dutton or anyone else does. Many people will have already cast their vote.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton faced off this week in the first leaders’ debate of the 2025 federal election.Credit: Sky News

How a person votes should not depend solely on what happens in the compressed amount of time that is the campaign. An election is a referendum on results of the past term and the promise of the next.

In each, both parties come up a little lacking. The increase in votes to the independents in the 2022 election shows how disenchantment in the major parties can deeply wound them. This goes to the core of a political party or movement: what does it stand for? What does it represent?

The Coalition has found to its detriment that not adhering to this principle has cost it support, according to recent polling. Its public confusion over some of its policies, such as working from home and the reduction in the numbers of public servants are cases in point. Dutton even had to offer an extraordinary public mea culpa over working from home rules for the public sector, admitting the Coalition had “made a mistake in relation to this policy, and I think it’s important that we say that and recognise it”.

In his budget reply speech, Dutton claimed that a difference between himself and Albanese was leadership. “I will make the tough decisions – not shirk them. I will lead with conviction – not walk both sides of the street.” Indeed, he’s on one side of the street, then the other. The to-ing and fro-ing this week within the Coalition over its commitment to the Paris climate agreement is another example.

Labor is not immune either. Its stance on climate action has been justifiably criticised, notably in light of its approval of four massive coal mine expansions in Queensland and NSW. Its budget was a case study in caution, and Albanese’s reflexive claim that only a Medicare card is needed to attend the doctor was rightly mocked by Dutton in his best moment of the leaders debate.

Generally, debates between the party leaders during a campaign are seen as a factor in their fortunes. Of the 100 people who attended this week’s debate at Wenty Leagues Club in western Sydney, 44 gave it to Albanese, 35 gave it to Dutton, and 21 didn’t know, which is a rough mirror of polling fortunes. The call by The Age’s David Crowe of a draw seemed right.

The polling is looking less lineball. After a strong showing at the start of the year, Dutton’s popularity is sliding. The Age‘s Resolve Political Monitor poll heading into the campaign showed a swing to Labor, and Albanese had an edge over Dutton as the country’s preferred leader. The challenge for Dutton is to change voters’ perceptions of him and his team through policy and detail. Crucial detail on the Coalition’s gas supply policy was produced only this week, and the opposition seems deeply uncomfortable discussing its nuclear energy plan.

The plug-and-play debate performances, the formulaic photo ops, the tightly controlled press conferences all lend an air of shallowness to a contest already lacking deep ideas. Voters can see and smell political opportunism, and a promise made of fairy floss, a kilometre away. Note, leaders, enough with the high-vis jackets and holding a baby. The child didn’t ask for it. Australians want stability of purpose in their politicians and a proven integrity of decision-making based on what they believe to be for the good of the country.

Despite the lacklustre quality of the campaign, the latest release from the Australian Electoral Commission illustrates how much Australians are invested in the country’s future. The AEC on Friday said that a record 98.2 per cent of eligible Australians were enrolled to vote in the election, that is, 18,098,797 people. The roll had increased by 870,000 since the 2022 poll, which was a rise of 5 per cent. The youth enrolment rate – those aged 18 to 24 – was 92 per cent.

It is a weathervane of political debate, not just in Australia but overseas, especially in the US, that the AEC added a note on migration. It wrote of “false claims made on social media attributing the growth of the electoral roll to new migrants”. This claim has been debunked multiple times. New migrants make up about 30 per cent of new enrolments in Australia, with the vast majority of enrolment growth being younger voters turning 18 and enrolling to vote for the first time.

It would be better that they were participating in a campaign that was more convincingly focused on genuine improvements to their nation.

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