Anthony Albanese’s adventures become one giant headache for Labor

Anthony Albanese takes part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco.

Anthony Albanese was fond of parroting “cost of living, cost of living” while being the small-target opposition leader.

But since the election the PM has been largely distracted on legacy issues such as the voice to parliament and travelling the globe as a latter-day Neil Armstrong. One more trip for Albo has become one giant headache for Labor.

He has been distracted and simply not in the country enough for a leader supposedly dealing with a cost-of-living crisis.

If not for the parliamentary sitting dates, Albo would no doubt find somewhere, anywhere else but Australia to fly in his plush Airbus he reportedly calls Toto One, named after his Covid-era pet dog.

Living up to the Sinatra soundtrack, “Fly me to the moon, let me dance among the stars, tell me what life is like on Jupiter and Mars”.

Well, Albo sure doesn’t want to know what life is like back here in Australia. When was the last time you saw the PM take a street walk and meet real Australians doing it tough?

Instead, it’s been a confected Yes rally in Balmain, VIP seats with elites at the tennis or a grand final. If it’s not stage-managed with a gaggle of Yes courtiers then the PM isn’t to be seen.

Albo’s hubris and his advisers’ inability to get him across the detail means Labor risks its very own ScoMo Hawaiian shirt moment – looking so out of touch when Australians are hurting so much.

The PM has presided over 12 interest rate rises, taken 18 overseas trips, lost a referendum and seen his approvals plummet all in his first 18 months in office. It’s quite the record. The Melbourne Cup Day rate rise was the rise that may well stop this nation. Cost of living is a harsh reality for millions of Australians when mortgage costs, rents, power bills, fuel and food all cost not more, but a lot more. It’s certainly not easy under Albanese.

Fresh back from Washington, the PM did briefly revisit his New Year’s resolution for 2023 and say cost of living was going to be his next priority, before he jetted off to China’s own Forbidden Palace for a trip that ended happily with a “handsome boy” compliment.

He then went to bust a move in the Cook Islands while offering free citizenship to all Tuvaluans if they stopped wearing Rolexes made in China.

Anthony Albanese greets Xi Jinping.

The PM’s latest failure, though, to raise with Xi Jinping the Chinese attack on our navy divers shows total weakness and rounded out a pointless APEC trip, the only highlight of which appears to have been a VIP nightclub event with Gwen Stefani.

But Albo’s distraction on the voice and long absences from parliament have led to a bout of ill-discipline among his leadership rivals, as well as his closest supporters in the party.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has been credentialling himself among the pro-Palestine ALP rank-and-file by not contesting the term “genocide” and failing to condemn an imam in his local area calling for jihad.

This isn’t about saving his seat; it’s never going to vote for the Liberals – it’s all about leadership votes in the ALP.

Then there’s been Treasurer Jim Chalmers talking up his abstinence and sobriety in a glossy weekend magazine article that looked for all the world like an application for the top job, right down to a dust-busting exercise on his times while drinking when he was “cutting a bit loose socially” in Parliament House.

Recently we’ve witnessed Foreign Minister Penny Wong uncharacteristically let her guard down and say on ABC radio that Hamas terrorists had been “murdered”. She went back to the ABC again to tell Israel to stop hunting down Hamas terrorists and calling for a “ceasefire”.

Wong is a long-term part of the Albo Praetorian Guard but, as the government’s support crumbles in the face of crushing cost-of-living issues, there’s Canberra speculation she may be heading for the exit.

Tony Burke

Penny Wong

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles would be the simple fit in foreign affairs. An international golfing enthusiast, he’d have even more time to play both the front and back nine while still using Avalon’s international runway for his return trip to his long-suffering electors of Corio.

Only last week Marles ably stepped into the breach in Albo’s absence and quickly agreed to all of Peter Dutton’s amendments to keep Australians safe from rapists, murderers and pedophiles. It was a shambolic parliamentary session for Labor.

Dutton described Marles as “a tough negotiator”. Such high praise for Marles speaks to the humiliation of what actually occurred in parliament to Labor.

The Albanistas’ command-and-control structure relies totally on Albo not being jet-lagged, not being distracted and actually at work and across the detail.

Cost of living is crushing and crippling Australians as everything is going up, except their wages.

Labor needs to act and act fast. It could start by re-instituting universal healthcare and restore bulk billing in Australia. Julijana Todorovic, a renowned Labor activist, rightly called out a woman who could hardly afford to pay the GP’s bill as a “WTF moment” for federal Labor.

Bulk billing is a direct way to fight the cost of living for all Australians. Medicare and bulk billing are true Labor legacies, built by Gough Whitlam and Bill Hayden.

Jim Chalmers

Albo might be distracted, licking his wounds from his legacy project that is now dead, but that doesn’t mean Labor under Chalmers – and an engaged backbench prepared to meet their electors – can’t put Labor back on track.

Cost of Living is the only issue that matters. The next election will be a referendum on the issue.

Albo needs to stop sulking and get across the detail of how to deal with cost-of-living pain.

If he doesn’t lose the hubris though, he’s at risk of losing the next election, just like he managed to lose the initial massive support for the Albanese voice when he didn’t provide the detail and thought words rather than actions were enough.