Albanese needs to re-assert authority and soon

Treasurer Jim Chalmers during Question Time at Parliament House.

The Albanese government is in the grip of abrupt and debilitating political paralysis.

Unless the prime minister takes command, there is a risk it become entrenched.

Ministerial competence is now an issue. Political management is wanting, and policy inertia over Australia’s falling living standards is now at risk of being hijacked by an increasingly anxious Labor backbench.

This is being compounded by an institutional obduracy which is undermining Labor governance credentials.

It is a fatal combination for any government.

Of course, Albanese has time to turn this around.

And his colleagues will be looking for demonstrable signs between now and the end of the year that he has the ability and a plan to do just that.

But the remedy Albanese might be looking for has inherent dangers.

Jim Chalmers has promised to hold ‘crisis’ talks with backbenchers ahead of the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook – the budget update – as they demand Cabinet does more on cost-of-living relief.

The caucus is spooked by how rapidly the government has fallen out of favour with the electorate.

It wants Chalmers to solve the problem for them.

But there is no easy fix.

Unless the Treasurer can do this by taking money out of the economy elsewhere – in effect, taking money off some people to give to others - then he will find himself on the wrong side of the RBA.

He would risk making the inflation problem worse, only to extend the mortgage and rent pain for those that Labor needs the most to be re-elected – the Middle Australia 35 to 49 year-old households.

The public manifestation of Labor’s political decline may appear sudden, expressed most sharply by the fall in support in Newspoll, but the reality is that it has been building for months.

The sudden and sharp fall in support for the government is not confined to the current political crisis. It hides a deeper problem that has been apparent since the May budget.

Labor’s first full budget was underwhelming in its response to the inflation crisis. It failed to resonate electorally.

Since then, Labor has been in a state of political drift, as other issues have continued to mount, culminating in the catastrophic defeat of the voice referendum.

Peripheral yet serious events have arisen since then.

Albanese is now suffering the cumulative effects of a management style that might have suited the first 12 months of government, but has been exposed once put under pressure.

This has been punctuated by a perceived lack of direction and leadership, with ministers now being exposed as out of their depth and the leadership team failing to assert a convincing narrative or project confidence that they are in control of political management.

Albanese, according to a Labor source, is less than impressed with the performance of some colleagues – most notably over the High Court decision.

Factional fragility denies him the ability to do anything about it, even if he wanted to do.

Albanese needs to re-assert authority and soon. The longer the government is allowed to drift, and his personal approval ratings as leader remain poor, the more difficult this will become.