Anthony Albanese’s caucus address signals he doesn’t want to talk anti-Semitism or an early election
Anthony Albanese doesn’t look like someone who wants to call an election any earlier than necessary.
Nor does the Prime Minister look like someone who wants to speak publicly about the rise of anti-Semitic terror in Australia as MPs return to Canberra for the first of the 2025 election-year sittings.
What Albanese does want to do is talk about the improving outlook for the economy and what Labor is doing to ease the cost of living.
Oh, and he also wants to talk about Peter Dutton, who will make everyone “worse off” and who is a threat to Medicare.
The Prime Minister’s first address to his Labor colleagues in 2025 was all about optimism and good economic news from the government side and derision and scares on the Coalition side.
Once again, Albanese committed to the March budget and said how important it would be to deliver Labor’s cost-of-living support for those who most needed it in the face of threats from the Opposition Leader, who was against Labor’s payments, would make people worse off and cut essential services.
What Albanese did in his address was to direct attention to his election campaign based on an improving economic outlook, completely avoid the damaging distraction of violent anti-Semitism and personally attack Dutton.
“We begin 2025 with a great sense of optimism,” Albanese said.
He then declared: “Inflation is down, wages are up, unemployment is low – indeed, our average rate of unemployment is the lowest that it’s been in many decades going back more than 50 years.
“What we understand in this room is we want an economy that works for people, not the other way around.”
He attacked Dutton for opposing Labor’s measures and ridiculed the Coalition’s policy of lifting taxes on business lunches.
“They don’t want workers to get a tax cut but they do want bosses to get a free lunch,” Albanese said.
There was more than just the rhetoric designed to lift spirits ahead of a busy and fraught two-week parliamentary sitting because Albanese was projecting the longer-term expectation for a March budget, a campaign on the economy and damage to Dutton.
Obviously Albanese is not going to suddenly announce his choice of an election date but all that he is saying points to a long campaign to leverage the prospect of better economic conditions, remove the distraction of domestic terror and regather momentum after a failed January re-set.
While early election speculation is moving on from March to April 12 – which happens to be the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday – Albanese doesn’t look like someone rushing to the polls.
Albanese was right to resist the calls for an early election in September last year because inflation has eased and there is a prospect of an interest-rate cut.
What is the advantage to go to the polls in April rather than May when he is pointing to more improvement and needs even more time to grind away at Dutton, who has surprised Labor with his apparent electability?
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