Anthony Albanese slimming down on policy before fight night

Labor’s election strategy is now firmly rooted in the political aphorism that oppositions don’t win them, governments lose them.

For Anthony Albanese, this is a recognition of the failed principle that underlined the party’s 2019 loss.

It was evident in his budget -in-reply speech and has become even clearer as the federal poll date gets closer.

Albanese is trying to trim down before fight night by shedding policy arguments he doesn’t have to have and focusing on landing jabs on his rival wherever he can.

It is now almost certain that Labor will not oppose the Coalition’s stage three tax cuts.

The move to vacate the field over tax cuts as an election issue would mug the government of a key strategic battleground.

It is by no means a winning strategy but it would also reduce Albanese’s exposure to a potentially bruising loss.

There is no mystery to any of this. Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are in search of a scare campaign and have identified income tax cuts as the sweet spot.

One of the key criticisms of the 2019 Labor campaign strategy was that it saddled the then leader, Bill Shorten, with too many policies, and too many of them announced too early. This was a collective failure shared by all of those still on the opposition frontbench.

Unless possessed by a passion for self-harm, Labor will resist its inherent temptation for big policy agendas and opt for a leaner, more targeted platform.

Albanese, and his Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers, won’t easily get suckered into a tax fight they don’t have to have. At least not one they have to have yet, if at all. Their preference would be to keep the government stuck in the weeds over anything and everything else for as long as possible.

The obvious risk to this strategy is that it fails to present as an alternative government at a time when there is no sign of an emerging appetite to kick the incumbent one out.