DJ Anthony Albanese plays Bob Hawke’s tune … but it goes off-key

Anthony Albanese went to Woodford Folk Festival ready to perform his best Hawke cover act, but the realities of governing in 2022 stymied the show.

Anthony Albanese makes his speech at the Woodford Folk Festival on Wednesday. Picture: NCA Newswire / Claudia Baxter

Anthony Albanese went to Woodford Folk Festival ready to perform his best Bob Hawke cover act, but the realities of governing in 2022 stymied the show.

Following in the footsteps of the Labor giant – “one of the greatest Woodford fans of all time” – and other ALP prime ministers, Mr Albanese expected a major speech at the festival to go off without a hitch.

Kitted out in an Akubra and sophisticated black polo instead of his favoured off-duty band T-shirts, he took to the stage in front of what he thought was a friendly audience.

But a gang of performative protesters, decked out in the Greens’ unofficial uniform of “Stop Adani” garb, wanted to mount their own show. The Prime Minister was having none of it.

“I think you might want to show some respect for what I have to say next,” he said, turning to the small group who had been heckling him and responding with “bullshit” at nearly every stat and achievement he mentioned, and interjecting for more than 20 minutes.

It was that off-script moment that told the country more than anything his speech could have (and did) about how the Prime Minister will govern in 2023.

It was a polite, methodical but tetchy telling-off to the climate change warriors who wanted to push him further than he wanted to go in this set, showing in one moment what it’s like to be a centre-left leader heading into the uncharted and unpredictable territory of 2023.

After the kerfuffle was over, it was back to the best hits of Hawke, plus a little dig at Scott Morrison.

“At the heart of Bob Hawke was a prodigious dedication to work and to detail, and an energy that he channelled into making life better for his fellow Australians,” Albanese said. “An extraordinary leader who knew that no true leader stands alone. His ministry was one of depth and breadth, and each of those ministers was fully trusted with their portfolios. Bob relied on them for their expertise and for their judgment – and he didn’t secretly help himself to any of their portfolios along the way,” he added, to ­chuckles and cheers of the mostly supportive crowd.

Albanese wanted this Woodford appearance to signal that he was entering his Hawke epoch. The one where he, too, is seen as the great reformer.

He’s seen as another Labor leader who enjoys the odd beer, another who has the common touch of Hawkie. But on Wednesday, the music man, also known as “DJ Albo”, rebranded himself as the Renaissance man as he reeled off how, during his short time in power, he had begun closing the gender pay gap, seen female representation in his party and cabinet swell and rebooted the energy market. However, the connection between the pair – ideologically and economically – is as thin as vinyl and as short as a 7-inch record.

The young Albanese – the one who fell in love with music – derided many of the policy changes Hawke brought to 1980s Australia, and his claims he was an adviser in the Hawke government on economic policy raised eyebrows during the campaign.

But the audience, including Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, Arts Minister Tony Burke and Hawke’s widow, Blanche d’Alpuget, loved the Hawke throwbacks.

They rose to their feet many times to support Albanese at the annual folk festival nestled deep in the heart of one of Australia’s most progressive pockets about an hour north of Brisbane. A patch of Australia still reeling from months of damaging weather events.

Woodford is a tricky headline act for a politician to master. It’s a place only Labor leaders have been brave enough to go before, and even Albanese was heckled.

Hawke attended Woodford 10 times and regularly got on stage to sing Waltzing Matilda.

His swan song was the 2018 festival just five months before his death. Despite being bound to a wheelchair, he still sang to the crowd via a video played above the stage. Hawke whispered the famous lines about the jolly swagman’s ghost still being heard near the billabong, before booming out the chorus of the tune. “That’s done, let’s go and have a cigar,” Hawke said, signing off for the last time.

Julia Gillard was the first sitting prime minister to appear – though unannounced – back in 2012, alongside Hawke during a comedy routine. There she outlined her ambitions for the country, including launching the NDIS, as well as venting her frustrations at being the first female prime minister with the “endless carry-on about hair, makeup and stumbles in high heels”.

Close, but no cigar.

Six months later she was rolled by her ghost – Kevin Rudd – and Albanese became deputy prime minister.

Ten years later, DJ Albo was there as the 31st prime minister.