How Anthony Albanese rediscovered his mojo to deliver election win

The PM’s confidence came after a rocky start to the year for the party, with poor polling and many Labor members reporting intense concern about ‘things going quite badly’ and a desire to call the election as early as possible.

Anthony Albanese has led Labor to victory. Artwork Emilia Tortorella

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Labor MPs at the beginning of this election year had one big fear – Anthony Albanese waiting all the way till May before leading them to a federal election.

After a torrid two years of a cost of living crisis, an embarrassing loss at the Indigenous Voice referendum and Peter Dutton on the up and up in the polls, the ALP thought if the Prime Minister waited too long that things would only get worse.

“Back then, we were thinking we need to go soon because if we wait until May we’re stuffed,” one Labor insider said.

“In the end we were looking at that date in April, which was really the earliest we could have gone because of the WA election, but then there was the cyclone (in Queensland).”

Anthony Albanese with partner Jodie Haydon and son Nathan Albanese. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

On Saturday night, Mr Albanese proved a May election was far from a stuffing. Labor was on its way to a bigger majority than it got in 2022 and the Albanese Government had experienced a resurrection.

Mr Albanese has benefited from some significant momentum-boosting moments of the campaign including Peter Dutton’s backflip on key policies and escaping worse-than-average tariffs inflicted by Donald Trump.

But government insiders say the Prime Minister rediscovered his mojo months before calling the election, citing an early January test drive through Queensland and a big Medicare play earlier in the year to frame the party’s re-election platform as key to Labor’s rebound.

Labor’s 2025 election campaign has been defined in large part by the extreme confidence of its leader, despite Mr Albanese seeking to play down his clear self-assuredness several times in the last five weeks and declaring “nothing was guaranteed” on May 3.

Those sorts of comments followed criticism from the Coalition that the Labor leader had been exuding “smugness” and concerns from those within party ranks that his confidence could lead to the sort of complacency and hubris seen before the ALP lost the “unlosable election” in 2019.

Mr Albanese’s confidence came after a rocky start to the year for the party, with poor polling and many Labor members reporting intense concern about “things going quite badly” and a desire to call the election as early as possible.

Despite the shift in date, ex-cyclone Alfred turned out to be a gift for Mr Albanese, who used it to announce as much support for the state as possible while leaping on Peter Dutton attending a fundraiser in the days leading up to the weather event and was able to brush off the fact he also went to a $10,000 a head dinner at the time.

Anthony Albanese holds a member of the public's pet dog on the campaign trail.

However, Labor sources agreed Mr Albanese had rediscovered his “mojo” long before the cyclone, with some pointing to the rate cut in late February and others declaring the $8.5bn Medicare announcement was the beginning of the momentum that did not stop building until May 3.

“That big health announcement, the polling within the week or two after that is where it stopped going down … we stemmed the bleed,” one source said.

“From that moment (Mr) Dutton started struggling. (Mr) Albanese got a bit of confidence and the Coalition just had to match (the announcement). That’s when the momentum started.

“We were finally talking about our issues, our message.”

Albanese said on several occasions to the press pack following him from visit to visit how much he was enjoying himself. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

And yet there were several other insiders who argued the shift in Mr Albanese started even before then, pointing to the Labor leader’s “mini campaign” in January.

“I think that is a lot of people going like, ‘why is this guy out there opening roads and bridges doing this stuff?’” one senior Labor source familiar with the party’s campaign management said.

“But the fact is, things like the Bruce Highway upgrade was actually important … and the rest of it was a chance to get the rhythm going.

“He built himself a runway, and he used it … that was him building capacity and momentum.”

The Labor source said of all the campaigns they had been involved in, the “discipline” in Labor for 2025 was at one of the highest levels they had seen.

Former chief of staff to Bill Shorten, Ryan Liddell, agreed that the Prime Minister really started “refinding his mojo” when he was out of the blocks on the second week of January.

“A lot of the commentary was ‘this was a dumb thing to do’ but he proved that so wrong … It helped him get match-fit for campaign time. He was ready for the pace and the intensity,” Mr Liddell said.

“He’s looked like he’s enjoying himself on the campaign trail.”

Indeed, Mr Albanese said on several occasions to the press pack following him from visit to visit how much he was enjoying himself, a sentiment which was helped by the way he was able to corral reporters during press conferences, “training” them to wait their turn for questions.

Former Scott Morrison press secretary Andrew Carswell said Mr Albanese was a “confidence player” and had made a clear effort to remain “smiley” through the campaign to contrast himself to Mr Dutton.

“He’s tried to be very smiley and have that momentum through the campaign to just juxtaposition against Peter Dutton’s blankness. That can come across as hubris,” he said.

He said it was clear he had “bested” not only his opponents but the travelling media as well.