Anthony Albanese running out of ideas as biz abandons him

Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Anthony Albanese can offer as many olive branches – or trojan horses – to business leaders as he wants but the trust is broken and will not be repaired before next year’s election.

The companies and industry groups that fell in behind the Prime Minister’s Indigenous voice referendum, renewables revolution, net zero transition, jobs summit and social crusades are now living by the motto “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.

Amid plunging support for Albanese and his government, flatlining economic growth and productivity, households and businesses struggling to stay afloat and no sign of a rate cut, Labor needs employers on their side more than ever.

After a frosty reception at last week’s Minerals Week gala dinner in Parliament House, Albanese, Jim Chalmers and cabinet colleagues fronted up to the Business Council of Australia annual dinner on Tuesday night.

While the Prime Minister toned down his rhetoric about people “talking Australia down”, he failed to address any concerns raised by the nation’s biggest employers about Labor’s union-engineered industrial relations laws.

Albanese’s sole offering was he would reject a climate trigger deal with the Greens (which was never seriously on the table).

Albanese, whose 2022 election promise to bring employers and unions together somehow gained traction among select corporate leaders, is beholden to trade unions that wield enormous influence over his caucus, despite dwindling memberships.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus on Tuesday posted on social media: “The CEOs of Australia’s big businesses have their black tie dinner tonight where they are planning to attack the PM & the Labor Govt for supporting workers getting pay rises”.

“The irony of them dining in grand ballrooms & denouncing payrises for working Australians is not lost,” McManus wrote.

Despite her assertions, the BCA event was not black-tie but rather business attire. Another fun fact: the ACTU secretary was invited and attended last year’s event, which marked the final dinner hosted by long-time BCA chief Jennifer Westacott, who has been succeeded by Bran Black. Amid the escalating business versus government/unions war over IR laws, the BCA snubbed McManus at this year’s dinner.

With Labor’s slow-moving National Reconstruction Fund, Housing Australia Future Fund and Future Made in Australia Solar Sunshot program still in their infancy, and few bright ideas outside of revamping Scott Morrison’s stage three tax cuts, Albanese is increasingly looking like a PM who has run out of puff and clinging on to a 2022 policy manifesto that has lost its shine.

The government’s political strategy at this stage seems to be collective prayer for a Reserve Bank rate cut miracle to reclaim momentum ahead of a 2025 election.