Tips for Albanese, straight from the horse’s mouth

Anthony Albanese has to ‘improve his performance and show he has grown in the role of leader’. Picture: Getty Images

After Joel Fitzgibbon quit from the opposition frontbench last week, informed speculation had it that he would act as a stalking horse for someone, anyone, to remove Anthony Albanese from the Labor Party leadership.

Now, though, Fitzgibbon is a stalker without a horse. If he can’t find someone to run for him, if he can’t build up his numbers beyond an estimated dozen malcontents to give it a shake himself, or can’t engineer the kind of changes he believes essential to win the next election, he will quit parliament altogether, vacating the seat held by him for 24 years and by his father, Eric, for 12 before that.

Fitzgibbon will weigh up his options while he continues his campaign against his former friend. The more vocal Fitzgibbon is, the more damage he causes, the lower Albanese’s and the party’s ratings will go, and the more vulnerable the Opposition Leader becomes to a challenge. That is how it usually goes. No one is saying it will definitely happen, partly because there is no structure behind Fitzgibbon’s campaign. Nor can any­one say it won’t, given how readily Fitzgibbon attracts publicity. On Wednesday last week he did nine interviews by 9am.

What should have been a great week for Albanese and the opposition turned into a shocker. And it wasn’t all Fitzgibbon’s fault.

There was already white-hot rage at Fitzgibbon over his behaviour. His colleagues described him, usually with F-bombs thrown in, as selfish and self-indulgent. Their anger was reciprocated. He was frustrated by what he saw as the paralysis of unity in caucus, thought senior colleagues weak not to challenge and was exasperated by Albanese’s inability to cut through or develop a narrative.

Left and right accused Fitzgibbon of looking no further than a career post politics, possibly in the minerals sector, without regard for a party that nurtured a family dynasty. In case you hadn’t noticed it is getting very personal.

They say if workers hear Fitzgibbon say often enough that Labor has deserted them, they will believe it. They certainly will if they don’t hear anything different.

They know there is nothing they can do to silence him. They also know if and when the polls worsen and he decides he will have to jump on that riderless horse himself, the one with the boots backwards in the stirrups, he will force others to decide whether to run or form a praetorian guard around Albanese.

Tony Burke has told colleagues he is prepared to take a bullet for Albanese if he has to and will not run against him. He intends to hold true to his election night undertaking that he would not run if Albanese did, then would stand by him. Three other potential candidates — Jim Chalmers, Tanya Plibersek and Richard Marles — have given no such assurances. Bill Shorten gets the occasional mention, too.

Joel Fitzgibbon in Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Fitzgibbon doesn’t care what his many enemies say because, from where he sits, he reckons it can’t get any worse. Of course it can, although that would progress his agenda. Albanese helps Fitzgibbon’s cause by first not having a clear climate change policy that works in city and country. It’s not that hard. The connecting factor is jobs, preserving the old ones while creating new ones. If Mark Butler, after seven years in the climate change portfolio, is unable to forge a policy saleable across Labor’s constituencies, then it’s time to give the job to someone else.

Albanese should not worry too much if he is accused of caving in to Fitzgibbon’s demand that Butler be sacked. Better that than perpetuate failure.

Second, the quality Albanese most values about himself, which has helped get him to where he is, is his authenticity. Paradoxically, his desire to preserve it at all costs has contributed to his problems. If he doesn’t modify his modus operandi it will hasten his downfall. Albanese hates prepping. He thinks it robs him of his spontaneity and he will sound scripted. Fair enough, there already are too many robopols. But he does need to spend time before he speaks thinking carefully about what he wants to say, what message it is that he needs to convey.

Taking advice from colleagues and staff is always a good idea, rather than just turning up for interviews or doorstops and saying whatever happens to pop into your head. That’s asking for trouble. It’s almost as bad as flashing your cranky pants when you get questions you don’t like, including whether your personal office is dysfunctional. Best to practice calm responses now rather than risk embedded bad habits derailing your election campaign. That’s if you make it that far. There is no shame in running through potential questions and answers. Again, it is not that hard to sound sensible, unrehearsed and unruffled.

Instead of saying Scott Morrison should contact Donald Trump to tell him to concede, which was dumb, Albanese could have said that what Australians, as lovers of democracy, wanted most to see, like Americans, was a peaceful, proper, efficient, gracious transition of power. He simply could have called on Morrison to echo those sentiments publicly.

Albanese’s other recent slip was when he mucked up his bonk ban policy on the ABC’s 7.30, then had to call a shadow cabinet meeting to fix it. Leaders do make mistakes. If they are not the same ones over and again they are forgiven for a time. If they are the same ones, the result is the same. They lose their job. Albanese is not there yet. However, he has to improve his performance and show he has grown in the role of leader. That is the only way to quell criticisms and the only way people will take him seriously as alternative prime minister.

At a time when opposition leaders have been obliterated, federal Labor remains competitive. The most recent Newspoll had the two-party-preferred vote almost line ball. Albanese’s approval rating was about 30 per cent. Some opposition leaders who would kill for those numbers.

There was a growing sense inside Labor that Morrison would be beatable by the time of the election. That sentiment will quickly disappear if the disunity and the sub-par performances continue.