John Howard an inspiration to plagued-by-polls Albanese

Anthony Albanese has invoked John Howard’s hat-trick of come-from-behind victories in the 1998, 2001 and 2004 elections as he brushes off his own poll numbers.

In an extended podcast interview with former 3AW Melbourne host Neil Mitchell, Albanese said Australia was grappling with a decline in social cohesion fuelled by social media and cost-of-living pressures.

John Howard’s first term as PM was his worst. Anthony Albanese is battling to win his second term.Credit: Graphic: Marija Ercegovac

And on the eve of the 2025 federal election, the prime minister promised further major policy announcements in the weeks ahead while criticising Peter Dutton for releasing so few policies or costings so far.

“They have free lunches [letting small businesses deduct lunch as a business expense], they have a $600 billion nuclear plan and cuts to pay for that, but they won’t tell you what the cuts will be,” he said.

“What I say is what they have said themselves ... [they have] $300 billion-plus dollars in wasteful spending that they want to get rid of. Their own words, not mine. They then have $600 billion they have to find for nuclear power, they have said they will have cuts after the election, he [Dutton] said that ... he needs to outline what the cuts are.”

Asked about recent polling, including the Resolve Political Monitor, which showed the Coalition’s share of the estimated two-party preferred vote was 55-45 and a Freshwater poll in the AFR in which the preferential result was 52-48, Albanese said his personal confidence had not been shaken.

“Do you remember a fellow called John Howard? Have a look at where he was before the ’98 poll, the ‘01 poll, the ’04 poll, the ’07 poll didn’t get better for him ... [but] he was always behind except on election day,” Albanese said.

Albanese agreed with Mitchell that social cohesion was under threat in Australia and that antisemitism, which he labelled a “scourge”, had been on the rise.

He lamented increasing political polarisation around the world.

“The first thing that I’m doing is making sure that I’m out there ... not looking for buttons to press, not looking to divide people,” he said, before ratcheting up his criticism of the opposition leader and getting personal.

“I don’t mind him [Dutton] at all as a human being; we can sit down and have a chat, we can have an engagement, but the politics he puts forward, his whole career has been built on division,” he said.

“It is cold-hearted when you are prepared to punch down … which is what Peter Dutton does quite often.”

Albanese also said his government had no plans to touch negative gearing or make capital gains tax policy changes, arguing that on negative gearing, “all of the evidence is that it doesn’t have an impact on supply”.

“If you immediately changed negative gearing, it could actually have a negative consequence.”

He then took another swipe at Dutton, arguing the opposition leader’s portfolio of investments was “bigger than mine” and “the difference is I don’t have mine behind a trust”.

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