Anthony Albanese is leading the country down a dangerous path that risks polarising our closest allies by putting domestic politics ahead of Australia’s longstanding support for like-minded liberal democracies and a rules-based global order.
The Prime Minister is shirking responsibility in favour of doublespeak and having a bob each way, assuming that Australians won’t notice.
In a National Press Club address before the 2022 election, Albanese delivered a scathing assessment of Scott Morrison’s leadership.
“Never before has Australia had a prime minister with such a pathological determination to avoid responsibility,” the then Labor opposition leader said. “He declares: it’s not my job, it’s not a race, it’s a matter for the states. He doesn’t hold a hose – and he doesn’t give a rats.
“Every action, every decision has to be dragged out of him. And so often, after all of the build-up, he gets it wrong anyway. And it’s always too little, too late. Australia needs leaders who first show up and then step up.”
Albanese – who promised from opposition to run a more transparent government that would be as pro-business and strong on national security as the Coalition – is falling short of his own standards. The Labor leader’s refusal to offer any coherent position on the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor applying for arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas leaders, implying equivalence between the democratic nation and the murderous terror group, continues a trend of divergence from the US, Britain and other western allies.
In the course of a single press conference on Tuesday, Albanese claimed he wouldn’t “comment on court processes in Australia let alone processes globally” before declaring WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be released.
While Labor denies a clean-up job, Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler on Wednesday rejected any equivalence between Israel and the “vile terrorist organisation” that massacred and took hostage innocent Israelis on October 7.
One week, Albanese tells leading Australian rabbis that pro-Palestine protesters encamped at universities are “Trots” who are ignorant of Middle East history; the next he refuses to reprimand Labor senator Fatima Payman for accusing Israel of genocide and declaring “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Albanese’s mixed rhetoric targeting selective audiences is influenced by politics. The pro-Palestinian Greens are eating into Labor’s vote across the country and senior cabinet ministers hold seats with large Muslim populations. There are a combined 161,418 Islamic voters in the western Sydney seats held by Jason Clare, Tony Burke, Chris Bowen, Ed Husic and Michelle Rowland.
The Albanese government has drifted from projecting Australia’s middle power status on the global stage, choosing not to follow the US in key UN votes, rebuffing US requests for naval support in the Red Sea and joining New Zealand and Canada to support positions that don’t align with Washington.
On China, Albanese has provided soft responses to two incidents where the People’s Liberation Army put the lives of Australian Defence Force personnel at risk. During his visit to Washington last October, US officials were privately concerned about Albanese’s understanding of the existential threat posed by Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party. Within weeks of being feted at the White House, Albanese became the first Australian prime minister since Malcolm Turnbull in 2016 to receive Xi’s red carpet treatment in Beijing.
After meeting Xi again at the APEC summit in San Francisco, Albanese dodged questions about whether he raised the PLA’s sonar pulse attack on Royal Australian Navy divers. Conveniently for Albanese, the incident was publicly revealed hours after he met the Chinese President.
Asked about Chinese aggression and whether trade tensions could resume following the PLA’s dangerous interception of a Royal Australian Navy MH-60R helicopter in the Yellow Sea, Albanese said on May 7: “We need to make sure that we have a mature response”.
With Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia next month in mind, Albanese said: “Dialogue is always important … it’s important we communicate, whether that be communicating areas of agreement or areas of disagreement. We’ll agree with China where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, but we will engage in our national interest.”
Albanese – whose government has diminished the influence of national security agencies in Canberra despite unprecedented geostrategic competition – has also been caught out over claims that he never discusses when national security committee of cabinet meetings are held.
Under pressure from Peter Dutton over why NSC meetings weren’t held in the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre, Albanese said: “What I don’t do is foreshadow either past, present or future, talk about (the) national security committee”.
The Prime Minister has, in fact, referred to NSC meetings multiple times. Following the alleged Wakeley church terror attack and Bondi Junction stabbing murders, Albanese said on April 16: “This morning we have had a meeting of the national security committee to receive formal briefings.”
Albanese has also found others to blame over the release and management of 154 dangerous non-citizens from immigration detention following the NZYQ High Court ruling.
After the alleged home invasion and bashing of Perth grandmother Ninette Simons by a group of men including released immigration detainee Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, Albanese criticised the Community Protection Board (which his own government set up for cover) and said he wouldn’t have granted the Kuwaiti-born man bail in relation to a previous matter. “I think that’s a wrong decision by that board (to not have an ankle bracelet on Doukoshkan), but they make the decisions … independent (of government),” he said.
As opposition leader, Albanese talked a big game about leadership and responsibility.
Less than 12 months out from the next election, voters will make their assessments on whether the Prime Minister has lived up to his own standards.
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