After a catastrophic referendum loss, growing disaffection with the government, an inability to deal with a housing crisis and mounting opposition to massive increase in immigration the Prime Minister has resigned just 12 months before the election.
In the referendum ordinary voters – scorned as ignorant and old-fashioned – turned not just on the political leadership but also against the corporate and bureaucratic elites in the well-to-do big city centres, overwhelmingly rejecting ideological ideas hastily prepared behind closed doors.
What’s more the referendum defeat was a symbol of greater concerns within the community about a failure to address a housing crisis, similar to the failed Labour government in New Zealand, which was made worse practically and emotionally by a surge in immigration and fears about asylum seekers.
So, what was intended to be an ideological victory changing the definitions of marriage and family on International Women’s Day turned into a St Patrick’s Day massacre and the end of the Prime Minister who resigned declaring he was no longer the best person for the job. (Sorry, perhaps I should have mentioned earlier I’m talking about Irish leader, Leo Varadkar, who resigned on Wednesday).
Varadkar decided to resign and allow his party to elect a new leader before the election next year when it became clear the record national votes rejecting his rushed proposals to change the definition of family were also a marker of disillusion with his leadership, his government and failures on wider policies.
Varadkar, who has been prime minister twice and is Ireland’s first gay PM, said the Coalition government would stand a better chance without him and his reasons were both personal and political.
Anthony Albanese, faced with strikingly similar circumstances after the defeat of the indigenous voice to parliament referendum, decided on the opposite strategy: dig in, deflect and detour.
The Prime Minister (ours) has also demonstrated he learned from the referendum failure, deflected responsibility for the loss to others, worked to reboot political momentum and is now handling religious freedom in an entirely different way.
Albanese’s decision to fight on and recover is embodied in his current approach on trying to keep his election promise of introducing religious freedom laws that protected both faith-based schools and their students and teachers.
Rather than the crash or crash through approach of the referendum Albanese has embarked on an entirely opposite path by declaring he won’t put the religious and sexual discrimination bills forward unless he can get “bipartisanship”.
For Albanese the attempt to spread responsibility and blame to Peter Dutton if the religious freedom bills fail – or don’t even see the light of parliament – means he can either get an acceptable bill through or blame the Coalition if it doesn’t.
In this case the “blame” for failure will be the excuse Albanese can give the left of his party and progressives who feel simply maintaining the status quo on hiring in faith-based schools – which the churches will accept as not being worse – is a betrayal.
Unlike a fatalistic Irish Varadkar, Albanese – with a more Italian Machiavellian heritage – is not for resigning but for using politics to turn the politics.
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