Albanese in danger of bombing out from public perceptions

Anthony Albanese’s first term of leadership has been divided into two halves of distraction and failure. Picture: NewsWire / David Geraghty

On Tuesday, the Albanese government resumes parliament for election-year sittings with a record of political failure and distraction.

Through bad management, bad luck or a combination of both, Anthony Albanese’s first term of leadership has been divided into two halves of distraction and failure that have damaged Labor’s achievements.

Even with the prospect of an interest-rate cut this month and a partial redemption for Jim Chalmers’s plan for an economic recovery to boost the government’s chances at an election, the latest distraction of just when the Prime Minister was informed about an explosives-loaded caravan will dilute that achievement.

Peter Dutton will pursue Albanese and the government in this parliamentary sitting over when and how the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Committee of Cabinet were alerted to the discovery of potentially Australia’s largest terror bombing.

Albanese and the Treasurer will want to concentrate on signs of slowing inflation, the prospect of lower interest rates and a “soft landing” for the economy and will accuse the Opposition Leader of “politicising” national security.

Given the political track records of Dutton and Albanese and polling indications of who is being more successful, there is little doubt the Coalition is better placed at a crucial time in the electoral cycle.

Labor’s first term has been distracted since Albanese’s surprise victory speech announcement of a referendum for an Indigenous voice to parliament. For 18 months, every Labor MP and senator was committed to the success of the voice referendum while the public was concerned about the cost of living and law and order and totally rejected the voice.

In that time, Labor failed on the voice referendum; curtailing cost-of-living; and allaying fears about security, particularly over foreign criminal visa holders being released from custody.

Dutton was accused of not addressing the economic issues and concentrating too much on security. Yet the polls demonstrated people were becoming more concerned about security and still thought the Coalition was better placed to handle the economy.

In the same fateful week in October that Hamas terrorists killed 1200 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more and the referendum failed, conditions were set for the next period of distraction and failure.

The steady rise of anti-Semitism in Australia, growing protests, an escalation of violence, vandalism and firebombing culminated in the discovery of a caravan bomb in western Sydney.

Albanese’s problem – which will have to be addressed somehow this week in parliament – is whether he as Prime Minister did not know about the potential bomb while NSW Premier Chris Minns did.

Minns has been upfront over the delay in telling the public about the caravan’s discovery because of police operational matters but also upfront in disclosing when he was told – the day after the discovery – and that he didn’t tell the PM nor was it raised at the national cabinet meeting while it was still secret.

Dutton is prosecuting a case that Albanese did not know until it was publicly reported.

Albanese has dodged the question although he has defended the police decision to not make the discovery public and was perfectly correct to say he would not damage operational matters.

Albanese’s problem is the terror threat was deemed serious enough to brief Minns and he sees no difficulty in disclosing when he was told or what he knew. Albanese has a credibility problem with the public and it will suffer further if he cannot explain the circumstance surrounding the handling of the information.

Accusations from a Labor team that politically weaponised allegations of a rape “within 100m of the prime minister’s office” to damage Scott Morrison and the Coalition has no grounds to claim Dutton is being dishonourable in pursuing Albanese’s knowledge.

Jim Chalmers has tried to campaign on housing and the economy. Picture: NewsWire / Nadir Kinani

The worst problem for Labor is the distraction as Albanese avoids press questions and ministers trying to sell election messages are bombarded with questions about the caravan.

Jim Chalmers, on Sunday, tried to campaign on housing and the economy but the first question he got was “When did Albanese know?”

He did his best to steer questions on the economy and attacked Dutton for seeking to cut spending. “We call on Peter Dutton to come clean on his cuts and what they mean for Medicare and pensions and housing and jobs … he won’t tell you what they are until the election; that makes him a very, very big risk,” Chalmers said.

The first question after this? “Peter Dutton says the PM wasn’t told about the Dural caravan because NSW police thought his office would leak it. What do you think of this?”

Distraction is unavoidable, and deadly.