Anthony Albanese’s authority has gone; he may go too

Anthony Albanese must stop relying on proxies and mealy-mouthed language to persuade voters he is fair-dinkum about mining jobs and regional Australia.

The Opposition Leader seems allergic to uttering the words “coal and gas”, flippantly referencing vague commitments to exporting resources.

He prefers speaking about net-zero emissions targets and renewables. That’s his focus.

Albanese’s claim that climate change divisions inside Labor are an invention of the media and “some who refuse to acknowledge the reality” is a cop-out. After last year’s election, the 57-year-old parliamentary veteran pledged to drag Labor back to the centre and win back disaffected voters in the regions and outer suburbs. Central to that mission was formulating a sensible, middle-ground approach to climate change and resources.

Albanese has struggled in achieving that goal. He needs a stronger narrative to replace his soft rhetoric on resources. If his Left-faction colleague Murray Watt can get up in Rockhampton and speak glowingly of the mining sector, why can’t Albanese? Is it that he fears the backlash in his inner-Sydney seat of Grayndler?

Kevin Rudd presented a model for modern Labor opposition leaders. He built a climate-action consensus ahead of the 2007 election because he brought regional communities with him.

He travelled to a coalmine with Peter Garrett, lashed Bob Brown for having “rocks in his head” when the former Greens leader suggested shutting down the industry, and was rewarded with a rump of Queensland seats, which Labor seems incapable of winning back.

Annastacia Palaszczuk embraced coal at last month’s Queensland election and reaped the benefits. But Albanese can’t bring himself to even visit a coalmine. He has also refused to shift his closest ally Mark Butler out of the climate portfolio.

Butler has tried and failed to sell Labor’s ambitious emissions and climate agenda at two-elections. Despite pressure from colleagues to re-task Butler in next month’s shadow cabinet reshuffle, Albanese will not budge.

“He’s doing an outstanding job,” Albanese said on Monday.

History does not favour leaders who ignore the concerns of their party room.

Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation from shadow cabinet and his crusade to “get labour back into the Labor Party” and fix the ALP’s rhetoric on mining and blue-collar workers has resonated with colleagues.

Any authority that Albanese had following the 2019 election is gone. Ahead of the year’s final two weeks of parliament, the sharks are circling.

While there remains no clear candidate or immediate move, few in Labor believe they have a chance at the next election, which could be held as early as the back end of next year.

The decision to hold the ALP national conference before Easter, where Labor will finalise its pre-election policy platform, combined with no improvement in Albanese’s performance, could well escalate leadership rumblings to a post-summer challenge.