Having watched the Prime Minister address the National Press Club on Thursday, I just want to say as an Australian that I feel much respected by his government. You too undoubtedly feel much respected. All of us feel much respected because Anthony Albanese constantly tells us how much he respects everyone. As he said during his election night speech in 2022: “I can promise all Australians this — no matter how you voted today, the government I lead will respect every one of you every day.”
For this career politician, politics is not about self-advancement but instead self-sacrifice for the good of the country. These were the principles he espoused during his first parliamentary speech as the country’s new leader. “My colleagues and I want to treat every day in this job in this place in government as an opportunity to deliver for the people of Australia, to fulfil our promises and to prove worthy of the trust that the Australian people have placed in us,” he said.
We should remind ourselves frequently how fortunate we are to have a leader who respects us. One need only contrast Honest Albo with his immediate predecessor to see what happens when we have a leader who disrespects us by telling fibs. As Albanese said of Scott Morrison in 2021, he was “a leader whose words have become meaningless”.
That is what happens when you abuse trust, as the then opposition leader reiterated. Morrison was “a prime minister who has no regard for what he said yesterday, so you should have no regard for what he says today,” said Albanese. “Having already shown Australians and the premiers and the media and his colleagues and the parliament and France and the United States that he can’t be trusted, Scott Morrison has now reached a point where he can’t even trust himself.”
You might remember it was on this day in 2022 that Albanese addressed the National Press Club and was asked by then ABC political editor Andrew Probyn: “Who is Anthony Albanese?” Following the lengthy standard spiel about his humble origins, Albanese invited the audience to read his biography written by journalist Karen Middleton.
Its title reflected “the way I engage in politics,” said Albanese. “I tell it straight.”
He told it straight during the election campaign. “We’ve no intention of making any super changes,” he said, a promise he kept for a whole nine months. “One of the things that we’re doing in this campaign is we’re making all of our policies clear.”
Like Albanese, Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers is someone who tells it straight. Announcing in 2021 that Labor would honour the Morrison government’s stage three tax cuts, he and Albanese stressed the party was doing so to ensure “certainty” for Australians.
But as we learned this week, the government, citing a cost-of-living crisis, intends significantly curtailing tax cuts for those with taxable incomes above $150,000, instead announcing it would direct the moneys to lower and middle-income earners.
This backflip can only be explained by a remarkable and recent change of circumstances. Asked repeatedly two weeks ago by ABC News Breakfast presenter Michael Rowland whether Labor’s promise was still good, a testy Albanese accused him of playing “word games”, saying “nothing has changed” and “the government has exactly the same position”. This was the same Albanese who declared just days before the election that he wanted to “change the way that politics operates in this country” by “actually answering questions”.
I admit to being puzzled about the contrast between what Albanese told Rowland as opposed to what he told us on Thursday, but given he always plays it straight and respects us, I have concluded this cost-of-living crisis arose only after that interview.
And nothing says fair and equitable like government taking from a minority to ingratiate itself with the majority. As Phillip Coorey observed in the Fin Review on Wednesday: “the government anticipates little sympathy for the so-called wealthy for not receiving all they were promised”. I am not sure how Labor’s divide and conquer tactics sit with Albanese’s assurances in 2022 that he wants to “bring Australians together” to “promote unity” and “not division”, but no matter.
We should accept what Chalmers told ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday, when he claimed this change was “not about politics”. It is just a coincidence that the Dunkley by-election is only a few weeks away.
It was less than a year ago that the Treasurer caused consternation when he repeatedly refused during a television interview to categorically rule out targeting the capital gains tax exemption for the family home. Fortunately Albanese refuted this, saying “it was a bad idea”. We can rest easy knowing Labor, as the party formally announced in 2021, will leave CGT exemptions and negative gearing alone. To do otherwise would be disrespecting us, you see, and Albanese has made it very clear he eschews such behaviour.
Sadly though many conservative commentators and users on social media impugn the motives of the government in up-ending the stage 3 changes, even insisting that Labor always intended doing so despite its assurances otherwise. This criticism is unacceptable. It serves an example of why it is essential the government’s draft Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill becomes law. We cannot have false information circulating that this amounts to a broken promise, or that Albanese is shifty and lacks integrity, or that he is an out-and-out liar.
Albanese would have you believe his recent actions are those of a strong and resolute leader. “When economic circumstances change, the right thing to do is change your economic policy,” he said on Thursday. It is a version of that famous quote apocryphally attributed to economist John Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind”.
Or in Albanese’s case, when the factions change their mind.
More Coverage
Challenges ahead for gas on road to net zero
As gas approaches its long-term minimal role, energy markets will find it hard to accommodate a volatile and uncertain transition. Government intervention may be needed.
Divided state Libs pick leader who’ll boost Dutton’s hopes
Brad Battin’s ascension to the leadership on the third attempt is a triumph of persistence over the toxic malaise that has gripped the Victorian party for decades.