Anthony Albanese says he would not have privatised the CBA in the 1990s

The PM has argued a state-owned bank would have operated with ‘more of a social licence’ and improved the behaviour of competitors.

Anthony Albanese has revealed he would not have sold the Commonwealth Bank had he been prime minister at the time, arguing a state-owned bank would have operated with “more of a social licence” and improved the behaviour of its competitors.

In an extended podcast with 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell, the Prime Minister said he believed in markets as a means of allocating resources but argued there was a “role for state-owned enterprises in competing, in keeping the private sector a bit honest”.

“I wouldn’t have sold the Commonwealth Bank probably, still – going back,” Mr Albanese said. “I think there would have been better behaviours by the big banks had there been a public instrumentality there competing with (them).

“You would have had the opportunity to use that competitive tension of a bank that had more of a social licence, if you like, to operate.”

Mr Albanese said the banks had “got better” over time, but agreed they had “certainly” been too greedy in the past.

The Commonwealth Bank was privatised in the 1990s under the leadership of Paul Keating, who has argued that he was responsible for building the modern-day CBA, although the decision has long been criticised by the progressive side of politics.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather wrote in the socialist Jacobin magazine in 2021 that the decision to privatise the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas “laid the groundwork for two decades of privatisation, outsourcing, and corporatisation at both federal and state levels”, and alienated Labor from “millions of working-class voters”.

But Mr Albanese told Mitchell he could not be categorised as a socialist. “I essentially do believe in a market-based economy,” he said. “I have a heart that is compassionate and a heart that is caring about those who are underprivileged.

“During the campaign I said ‘no one left behind’, which is really important. I guess that’s the progressive component of it. But I also said ‘no one held back’, because I do think you need to have aspiration.”

In a wide-ranging conversation, Mr Albanese also revealed he had a dim view of social media and “keyboard warriors”, arguing they had diminished the ability for society to have important long-term national debates.

Asked, hypothetically, if he could make any decision as Prime Minister, Mr Albanese replied: “If I could do something … maybe ban social media. Keyboard warriors … can anonymously say anything at all and without any fear. The sort of things that they would never say to you face to face.

“And it worries me that, what that’s doing, combined with the pressure that is on modern journalists, is to really be obsessed by the very short-term cycle.”

Reflecting on his marriage break-up with former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt, Mr Albanese said he considered walking away from politics after she told him on New Year’s Day in 2019 she wanted “to take a different direction in her life”.

“That came as an incredible shock to me,” he said. “I was not in a great state – that’s the truth – for a little while afterwards … I did suggest, certainly, I was more than willing to not run at the 2019 election.”

Mr Albanese also said he nearly left politics in 2013 when he thought Labor was headed towards a “very bad result” following the Rudd/Gillard era.