The Labor leader has confirmed that Labor’s greatest fear is repeating the policy mistakes of its 2019 election platform and arming the Coalition with electoral ammunition.
This close to an election, Albanese’s budget-in-reply speech demanded more detail.
The greatest point of difference with the Coalition remains largely rhetorical rather than substantial, and primarily focused on Scott Morrison’s political failures.
Both leaders have now promised big-spending reforms to the aged-care sector. Both claim to be bringing down the cost of childcare.
Both claim to want to build more things here, train more workers, spend more on defence and bring an end to the climate wars.
This Coalition-lite approach, or “mini-me” as Josh Frydenberg described it, is implicit in the promise of “renewal” rather than revolution.
Where Albanese seeks to portray himself as a leader of long-term policy vision, he accuses the Morrison government of being only about the here and now.
Yet he has been happy to adopt those short-term cost-of-living measures that are undoubtedly popular.
JFK famously said that both the major parties shared the same vision for a better America – they just disagreed on how to achieve it.
Albanese’s greatest disagreement with Morrison is Morrison himself.
The Labor leader’s budget-in-reply speech was billed as an opportunity for a meaningful attempt to set a contrast between Labor’s general approach and the government’s budget.
Yet it was punctuated with pot shots and broad-brush reappraisals of the handful of policies that he has so far released.
Albanese accuses Morrison of not having any vision for the future, yet his own vision is opaque.
The central point of difference, according to Albanese, is on cost of living and wage growth, which he accuses the Coalition of deliberately suppressing as a design feature of its economic architecture.
Where the government’s budget sought to address the acute cost-of-living pressures through financial relief, Albanese’s plan is for higher wages and free childcare.
This is an attempt to pitch Labor as having a long-term plan and the Coalition as being focused on the next six weeks.
The Opposition Leader’s claim will be that his aged-care plan is central to his political and policy agenda, and aimed at the welfare of ordinary people and how they go about their daily lives.
It addresses what he sees as a long-festering sore in Australian society. There can be no argument about that.
But, again, politically this is safe ground for Albanese.
He disputes the small-target claims but embraces it in effect.
His speech will do nothing to counter the Coalition’s increasingly justifiable argument that Albanese remains an electoral blank canvas.
Beyond this it was a lost opportunity to address the lingering doubts many voters may still hold about Labor’s record, and whether it has a credible commitment to spending restraint or justifiable fears that it won’t resort to higher taxes once in government.
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There is no clearer picture today of what Anthony Albanese seeks to achieve in government or how he will do it than there was on Thursday.