Albo risks being stranded in middle

Illustration: Jon Kudelka

Labor is fraying at the edges and splitting in the middle.

A lack of clarity on policy, a falling-back on ideological arguments and fears of being picked off by the Greens on the left — after being trounced by the Coalition on the right — have the potential to strand Anthony Albanese’s leadership.

Leaving everything “on the table” for too long doesn’t work because it means every idea, including bad ones, is “under consideration” — just ask Malcolm Turnbull.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese contemplates the long, hard road ahead. Picture: AAP

As parliament settles into real business, the parliamentary Labor Party shows no signs of recovering from the shock of the election loss as it splits over tax and border protection as well as the progressive agendas against mining and farming. The Labor leader, and his Left faction colleague and Senate leader, Penny Wong, had to warn Tuesday’s partyroom meeting against supporting “vegan terrorists” and risking another election loss by not changing policy.

Just as Turnbull, in September 2015, was swamped by confusing ideas after declaring “everything on the table” and lost momentum, Albanese runs the same risk.

Under Bill Shorten, Labor misread the public mood on a huge tax agenda and being aligned with progressive groups and the Greens on anti-farm sentiments, and opposing mining and coal development.

Scott Morrison backed the jobs in industry, appealed to farmers, upbraided the farm vandals, supported coalmining and held firm on border protection.

Since the election, the Coalition has set out to overturn Labor and Greens-inspired border protection changes, vigorously supported mining and moved against the “vegan terrorists” and activists trying to shut down farms and mines.

In the past few weeks, Labor has reopened the issue of non-refugees who arrived illegally by boat being allowed to settle in Australia, differed on tax policy, wobbled internally on Chinese influence and brawled over whether the Greens and GetUp activists were friend or foe. But the public — Morrison’s “quiet Australians” — have made it clear they do not support any repeal of the rules on non-refugees settling in Australia, are concerned about foreign influence and are increasingly supportive of mining and more suspicious of activists’ disruptive agenda.

Kristina Keneally’s crusade for a non-refugee Tamil family to stay in Australia has been met with a Newspoll showing 63 per cent support the Coalition’s policy while the GetUp anti-mining, anti-business and anti-agriculture agenda has lost ground as support for mining — including coal — has grown.

If the loss of seats in Queensland and the near-loss of Labor’s traditional coal seat of the Hunter in NSW wasn’t a big enough message for the ALP, these surveys give an idea of where public sentiment lies. The difficulty for Albanese is that he doesn’t want to rush on policy but runs the risk of having a policy vacuum filled by the wrong ideas.