Anthony Albanese reveals his plan for long-term power
In an interview six months into his second term, the PM says his ultimate ambition is for Labor to become ‘the natural party of government’ in Australia.
Five months into his second term as Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese is thinking not just about the next election due in 2028 but the one after that, too. Having won a thumping re-election victory on May 3 with 94 seats in parliament, leaving the Liberal Party existentially challenged and internally divided, he says his ultimate ambition is for Labor to become “the natural party of government” in Australia.
It is a goal he says he believes is in reach, but only if the party and government he leads are clear about who they represent, what they stand for and what they want to achieve. Albanese, only the third Labor leader to win back-to-back elections, and reinforced with a huge parliamentary majority, is not about to risk it all with a crazy-brave agenda, exceeding his mandate or rushing to reform.
His message – to voters, his party and ministers – is that Labor’s longevity depends as much on its policies as it does on its processes. Unity is expected. Stability is essential. A methodical, systematic, process-driven cabinet-led approach is required. While responsiveness is demanded by governments, more than ever, Albanese is thinking long term. He is, above all, a strategist.
“I said before the 2022 election, I had a plan for the first term and the next term looking forward, that I wanted Labor to be the natural party of government, and that means responding in a commonsense way,” Albanese says, relaxing into a lounge at Kirribilli House, framed by a stunning Sydney Harbour view, loosening the tie around his neck and neatly folding it.
“That’s what I mean by bringing people with you on that journey of change as a progressive centre-left government that doesn’t try to do everything immediately but which shapes that change and that agenda going forward.”
He is talking exclusively to Inquirer ahead of a visit to the US, Britain and United Arab Emirates with an ambitious foreign policy agenda to prosecute: recognition of Palestine, a bid for a UN Security Council seat, international action on climate change, Australia’s initiative to protect children online, encouraging freer trade and investment in manufacturing and clean energy.
The Prime Minister had no expectation of a bilateral meeting with Donald Trump in New York but they came face-to-face for the first time at a UN reception for leaders. Albanese described it as “very warm and engaging”. A selfie was taken. They discussed a scheduled meeting at the White House next month. Albanese, according to a senior government figure, told Trump: “We will do good things together.”
Albanese rejects suggestions the alliance has been harmed by the delayed meeting. He met Joe Biden several times. He is delivering the $368bn AUKUS submarine agreement. The US footprint in Australia expands at a rapid rate with defence installations, marines, joint exercises and plans to host US submarines, planes and ships. No Labor prime minister has been so accommodating of the US presence on our shores.
The recognition of Palestine with provisos that Israel is recognised, democratic elections are held and Hamas excluded from governing is not welcomed by the US but has the support of Britain, France and Canada, and most other nations. Albanese, challenged on how it will deliver peace to the conflict-strewn region, says he moved carefully, cautiously and in concert with other Western nations. It is about inching towards peace with a message of hope.
The government has set its 2035 climate change target, a range of 62-70 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions, in accordance with scientific and economic advice. It is another example of steering a middle path, winning the support of unions and business. That the polar extremes of the climate change debate – the Greens on the left and Coalition on the right – said it was not enough or too much underscores his middle path.
“The first term was not just defined by what we did but how we did it,” Albanese says. “Term one was turning the corner from an inflationary environment in order to lift living standards. In a sentence: what we needed to do to create those preconditions. Term two is building on that agenda further for setting Australia up for the decades ahead.”
On the eve of the May 2022 election, Albanese told me he wanted to change the “mind and mood” of the country he sought to lead. He believes they have changed. After the revolving-door prime ministership that defined the Coalition (2013-22) in power and the concomitant partyroom showdowns, policy backflips, secret ministries, culture wars and confrontational approach, voters had had enough.
“That’s one of the things that wasn’t picked up by some of the commentary in the lead-up to May 3,” he says. “They underestimated the way that people felt about the direction of the country and I think people have respected the fact that it is an orderly government. People who might disagree with it know that we have engaged with them. They know that we don’t shout at them, and I think there’s a lot of shouting in global politics at the moment.
“We have built, I think, good relations with a majority of the business community, the union movement, civil society groups – we are seen as approachable. That doesn’t mean they agree, you know, with everything, but there is a consistency, I think, about what we bring to the task of government.” Albanese adds that he leads a “pragmatic, sensible but principled” government.
The polls were not encouraging in the summer of 2024-25. But Albanese believed voters would respond not only to his policies but also the style of governing. Still, he had to claw back support and he did that at the start of the year with a sweep through marginal electorates, supporting local candidates and making pledges, from the far north to the west, south to Tasmania, and in the pivotal states of NSW and Victoria.
He judged opposition leader Peter Dutton to be “very confident” of victory, which made the latter “complacent”. Albanese was in campaign mode in the first week of January. “They were still in the sheds, you know, when the second half was on.” The victory, however, was not only due to the campaign but also to the pillars of policy that had been erected during the previous three years.
“The first challenge is always the economy and dealing with cost-of-living pressures,” he says of Labor’s first term. “It was not anticipated that there would be such global inflationary pressures and the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s. So, we had to deal with people’s immediate concerns whilst trying to anticipate and create longer-term reform agendas.”
He notes energy price relief, cheaper medicines, childcare subsidies and redesigning legislated income tax cuts to benefit those on low and middle incomes. Every state signed up to the Gonski education reforms. Real wages increased, paid parental leave was extended, 10 days’ domestic and family violence leave were initiated. And the government legislated a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, but reaching that goal will be a stretch.
Foreign policy is always a prime ministerial priority but it will be more so in a second term. The UN Security Council bid underlines Albanese’s global ambition for Australia to be seen as a constructive, innovative and respected nation abroad.
Albanese says “re-engagement and repairing the relationship with China” was necessary for export industries and jobs. He refers to the “re-engagement” with Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries and the support provided to Ukraine to resist Russian aggression. And “engagement” in international forums on climate change.
The mention of not signing the mooted defence treaty with Papua New Guinea or finalising the security agreement with Vanuatu prompts a sharp response. In relation to PNG, he bristles at over-reactive commentary, says there is a process that will be followed and insists the defence treaty will be signed. “It’s all nonsense,” he says. “It’s all done. The words are agreed.”
Before leading Labor back to power 3½ years ago, Albanese insisted the lessons of the Rudd-Gillard government had been learnt: namely, the internal divisions, rivalry and backstabbing in which two of its prime ministers – Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard – were both cut down by caucus in a whirlwind of ambition and retribution.
Moreover, his ministers come to the cabinet table, sit in caucus and deal with departments with the experience of having done it before. Albanese says he has personally presided over caucus renewal, spotting candidates and ensuring younger MPs are promoted, and boasts that more than 50 per cent of MPs in caucus are women.
“We have had experienced ministers but we are also having new people come in,” he says. “We have had, which you need, some renewal and we have an incredible capacity coming up through the ranks. We have a clear ideological position going forward as well. There is a great deal of consensus. Does not mean that everyone agrees on every issue but there is very broad agreement.”
Before the 2022 election, Labor MPs waxed lyrical about another lesson learnt from another Labor government: the need for proper cabinet government, with robust debates behind closed doors and listening to and respecting public service advice, that was a hallmark of the Hawke-Keating government. A difference, though, is that there were sharp ideological differences in the party then that required careful management.
“I’ve never seen the Labor Party so united as it is,” Albanese says. “Some of the old ideological divides in the party have just disappeared.” He expands on this point: “We have an ideology, but it is one in which there is a great deal of consensus across the Labor Party that people don’t go into a room with the left hat on or a right hat on. People go in with the Labor hat.”
Albanese, who joined the Labor Party in 1979 amid the Cold War, witnessed and indeed participated in rowdy conference debates over totemic issues such as the US alliance, market-based economic policies, reforms to education funding, and uranium mining and export. These were no-holds-barred, tear-them-down-and-drag-them-out ideological battles.
But those days are over. The rise of 24-hour television news and social media does not permit it. It would be mutual destruction to see, in real time, ministers and party members in tribal combat mode. The party is still highly factional but without the deep ideological divide.
“I’ve got a real understanding of the Labor Party, the machine structure culture, probably as much as anyone who’s ever been in this position,” Albanese says.
The party today, he says, has as a guiding star: no one left behind, no one held back.
“We are a social justice party that will always look after the vulnerable,” he says.
It is about closing the gap for Indigenous Australians, making the National Disability Insurance Scheme sustainable, expanding Medicare and GP services, supporting gender equality and human rights, and “respecting people for who they are”.
The “no one held back” speaks to “aspiration and opportunity” with reward for effort and encouragement of entrepreneurialism, a progressive taxation system and education supported at all levels: early childhood, school, trades and university.
“There’s broad support for a market-based economy, but one that also recognises that where market failure occurs a government has a responsibility to intervene,” he says.
On the first anniversary of his prime ministership, Albanese told me he saw himself and his government as a change agent. It was not in power merely to preside but to fundamentally alter Australia’s policy settings. He embraced the “interventionist” description but applied systematically, where needed and warranted, to deliver better outcomes.
Robert Menzies spoke of the need for the Liberal Party in the 1940s to appeal to voters in the middle ground who cherished freedom, choice and enterprise but also valued security and opportunity. These values of security and opportunity are now identified with and were given new meaning by Labor with its defence of public services during the election campaign.
Medicare provides security. Reducing student debt provides opportunity. Not raiding superannuation to afford a home provides security. Backing action on climate change is not only necessary but about security and opportunity. Higher wages, income tax cuts and workplace flexibility are about opportunity.
The Coalition, in contrast, promised to cut public service jobs and end work from home, and opposed student debt relief. It looked mean and nasty. Culture wars on flags, welcome to country ceremonies and promises to reform a “woke” curriculum seemed provocatively divisive and positively Trumpian. Voters under 50, women and migrants, especially, deserted the Liberal Party. Albanese’s re-election victory, however, masks Labor’s support in the electorate. The primary vote was 34.5 per cent. “Our primary vote still isn’t what we would want it to be,” Albanese concedes. But the two-party vote increased to 55.2 per cent. That is historically high. Labor’s vote went up in the Senate. And the seat haul ranks among the highest of any government. Moreover, Labor maintains a commanding lead over the Coalition in all polls after the election. If an election were held today, Labor would increase its seat tally. The Liberal Party would shrink even smaller.
Politics is relative. The Liberal Party, to its right, had its worst defeat since 1943. The party has all but vanished in metropolitan Australia. It has no pathway back to power unless it regains teal seats in its traditional heartland. It regained one (Goldstein) but lost one (Bradfield).
The Greens, to Labor’s left, lost three seats and its leader, Adam Bandt.
“In a two-party system, the decline of one helps to reinforce, I think, where we are at,” Albanese says. “The Labor Party is now the biggest party. It has more seats in regional and remote Australia than any other political party.” He says Labor’s margins in many seats it won in 2022 have been strengthened after the last election.
A big majority, Albanese says, must not be taken for granted. The focus this term must be on keeping faith with election commitments. He recalls that because the party won 94 seats, there were suggestions that “now we can do what we want” from some in the party. His response? “No. Now we have to deliver what we said we would do.”
It has been a busy first six months.
“We made sure that on July 1 we had the paid parental leave, the super on paid parental leave, the energy rebates, the paid prac for students,” he says.
“We legislated, as we said we would, the 20 per cent reduction in student debt. We’ve brought forward the 5 per cent deposits on housing to October.”
There is still an underbelly of discontent in pockets of Australia that has spilled into city streets. Since the election, there have been protests about the Israel-Hamas war, Indigenous sovereignty rallies and marches against immigration. There have been anti-Semitic attacks. Neo-Nazis have clashed with other protesters and police.
“Social media pushes people, polarises people,” Albanese says. “There’s a huge wake-up call about people being pushed to extremes and to believe things as fact that are not fact.” He adds: “The solution to that is to provide commonsense, straightforward policy and political leadership that isn’t angry, that isn’t full of hyperbole.”
Albanese is trying to lower the temperature. He mentions the strong stance he has taken condemning anti-Semitic attacks. He has invited Jewish and Palestinian community leaders to the Lodge for private talks. He regularly meets multicultural community organisations. He has met farmers and addressed the News Corp Bush Summit. He listens to and respects people even if they disagree.
Being prime minister changes a person. Nobody comes to the job fully formed. Albanese says he has been talking to Paul Keating – Labor’s elder statesman – about the nature of the job, the burden of responsibility and obligation that carries with it, and how nobody can know what it is like until you have done it.
“You grow as a person,” Albanese says. “You engage more with a whole range of people. When I sit down now and have either face-to-face or regular conversations with people who are other leaders, world leaders, that has an impact.
“I’m very well organised personally,” he adds. “My own personal upbringing is part of that … I was helping to run a household at a very young age, often by myself, you know, as a young teen, so I’m very well organised. You just get better.”
Albanese says he is thinking about the job non-stop. He uses time on planes to write notes that help him get a broader perspective on things. He is mindful of the need to exercise – still plays in the Marrickville tennis competition – but laments not seeing friends enough.
“You give up things in this job,” he says. “My biggest critic could not say that I don’t work hard. You’ve got to be making a difference, having an impact, you know, not just occupying the space.”
Asked how long he wants to be prime minister or if he has a time in mind for an exit, Albanese responds that he will continue as long as he thinks he is the “best person” to lead the party and the government.
“The idea that I went into parliament to be leader is absurd,” he says. “I didn’t have that expectation or that desire. In 2019, I was very confident because I thought that I was the best person then to (lead the party) and I’d thought a lot about how we could win (in 2022).
“As long as I think I’m the best person to be in the leadership of the party, then I’m here. And as long as I’m enjoying it, too. And, you know, I am enjoying it.
“It’s a challenge each and every day. But it’s an incredible privilege to be able to do it.”
The radical firebrand who spoke of the urgency and necessity of democratic socialism in his youth is now a process-driven, methodical, pragmatic, incrementalist, as ever reformist, but determined to lead a united and stable party. Being “underestimated”, he says, suits him just fine. Especially as his ambition is to lead a long-term Labor government.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout