If you want to be Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, act like one

Federal Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

If Anthony Albanese is to become prime minister he has to be seen first as an alternative prime minister and for that to happen he has to behave like one.

But, the Opposition Leader typically overreaches as he tries to score a political point and damage Scott Morrison’s positive leadership image with a one-line nasty political sneer.

The US presidential election was the perfect opportunity for Albanese to be seen as an alternative prime minister, to behave in a statesmanlike way and gain real political advantage for Labor.

Instead, Albanese and Labor embarked on a political hit last week designed to link the Prime Minister with Donald Trump’s personal shortcomings and political termination by resurrecting claims Morrison was “personally close” to Trump and was in a partisan campaign rally on his visit to the US last year. Neither is true.

Once again a political one-liner, such as the “Morrison recession”, went too far in suggesting Morrison should “have the courage” to “contact” Trump and urge him to respect the democratic process. This is just nuts.

NSW Labor Senator Tim Ayres went further on Monday and said: “Scott Morrison should be acting in the national interest, not in his partisan interest, not obsessed with Trump style, US politics”. More nuts.

After a while Albanese cottoned on that his call for Morrison to “contact” Trump and urge him to recognise the democratic processes was being seen as a silly notion and wasn’t passing the public acceptance test.

So, before question time and a motion on Joe Biden’s election, Albanese denied he “ever” said or meant that he wanted Morrison to telephone Trump and tell him to stand down.

Unfortunately, just after question time on Sky News, Ayres popped up again accusing Morrison of working against the national interest and declaring Albanese was “absolutely right” to suggest “Morrison pick up the phone” to Trump.

A perfectly reasonable Labor political campaign on climate change off Biden’s election was derailed and Albanese was being contradicted by his own supporters.

As the latest Newspoll shows, the Coalition’s primary vote is higher than it was at the last election, Labor’s primary vote remains stalled in the low 30s and on the question of who is the better prime minister Morrison leads Albanese 58 to 29 per cent.

Albanese’s approval rating as Opposition Leader did show a marked rebound but Albanese is in the race to become prime minister not to remain as opposition leader.

But, unless he’s seen as an alternative prime minister who can handle the world stage, manage an economy and say more than a nasty one-liner, that’s where he will stay.