Anthony Albanese’s political plays as he shifts into election mode

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek talk during Question Time in Parliament House last week. Picture: David Beach/NewsWire

Anthony Albanese’s claim that blocking Tanya Plibersek’s Nature Positive deal with the Greens wasn’t “about politics” is fantasy.

Politics is all the Prime Minister has known since his university days, elevation as NSW Young Labor president at 22, stints working for Tom Uren and Bob Carr, six-year tenure as NSW Labor assistant general secretary and arrival in federal parliament in 1996.

After almost 29 years in federal parliament – immersed in left and right factional sparring and brawling with the Greens and Tories – Albanese oozes politics in everything he does.

Questioned on Monday about whether fear of a political backlash or lobbying by Western Australian Premier Roger Cook played into his torpedoing of a deal with the Greens on Labor’s Nature Positive environmental law reforms, Albanese said: “Now, this isn’t about politics, it’s about getting it right.”

Asked if he categorically denied any feud with Left-faction rival Plibersek, Albanese said “absolutely” before criticising the media for concentrating on “what didn’t happen as opposed to what happened”.

And quizzed on timing for the 2025 federal election, after repeated assertions he would run full-term to May, the Labor leader said: “People will find out when I get in that white car with the flag and go to Government House … I’ve said the whole way along it would be in 2025.”

All three responses scream politics, politics, politics. And as a career politician, Albanese is always about the politics.

Whether it’s neutralising concerns in the mining states of WA and Queensland, finding solutions to reassure salmon workers in Tasmania or ditching references to his failed Indigenous voice referendum, Albanese will be ruthless in his pursuit of election victory.

While the 61-year-old says his intention is to hold a May election, he is clearing the decks for an early election after ramming through 45 pieces of legislation last week and inserting election policies into Jim Chalmers’ mid-year budget update later this month. As senior ALP figures keep saying: “Why would you wait until May if you can win in March … a win is a win.”

Over the next month and into January, Albanese will roll out new cost-of-living relief measures and announce major election policies. Peter Dutton, who is not buying Albanese’s May election declaration, will also unveil Coalition nuclear, energy and housing policies before the Christmas break to ensure he is not caught on the hop.

As the federal election inches closer, Albanese will do whatever it takes to become the first PM since John Howard to win a second term. Like most modern political leaders who can access Google, Albanese would know that another three-year term would catapult him into the top eight for longest-serving prime ministers ahead of Labor heroes including John Curtin, Ben Chifley, Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam.

Albanese, who will enjoy the gold-plated taxpayer-funded pension scheme when he eventually retires to his clifftop home perched above Copacabana Beach on the Central Coast, is all about his legacy – the good, the bad and the ugly.