As PM, Anthony Albanese lifts in a soaring plea for voice to parliament

It’s often said Anthony Albanese is not a great orator – but on the first day in Parliament as PM, he found fluency on a topic close to the heart.

Anthony Albanese speaks during the opening of the 47th parliament in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

It’s often said Anthony Albanese is not a great orator. In the flustered, forgetful election campaign, he was anything but statesmanlike.

But in the swirling smoke and the clapsticks of a first day of a new parliament – a new Labor government, an Albanese Labor government – he suddenly sounds like a prime minister.

Like John Howard, an underwhelming opposition leader who grew into the dignity of the prime ministership, Albanese speaks best off-the-cuff. He finds articulation and rhythm in candid speech, not reading what someone else has written, no matter how powerful the rhetoric.

He started his first day as Prime Minister in parliament with the kind of speech only he can make: a normal person, talking frankly, with splashes of emotion.

It was a seriously impressive speech, delivered to the morning’s welcome to country and smoking ceremony, about why a voice to parliament matters – and it was thrown into sharp relief by Peter Dutton’s response.

Albanese talked of seizing the moment; of pride. “I say to everyone here, all of my parliamentary colleagues, don’t miss the chance. Because you’re not here for that long. None of us will be.

“And when you’re sitting on the porch thinking about what you did, you can either have a source of pride or a source of regret.

“No middle path. No middle path. Make it a source of pride.”

Pride was everywhere – in the record number of Indigenous MPs, and in the diversity on display at every turn. In the midst of the white men in dark jackets were: three women in pink pants suits, including one also wearing a hijab; one fist-bump (Governor-General David Hurley to Penny Wong, wearing her right arm in a sling after a surfing accident); one elegant ao dai, worn by new western Sydney independent Dai Le; one Buddhist text for swearing in new West Australian MP (and former dolphin trainer) Sam Lim; and one steel reusable water bottle (independent senator and former rugby star David Pocock rehydrating in the chamber).

Oh, and Siri. “Hi there!” the Apple voice ­assistant announced from the government side of the packed Senate chamber as the G-G formally opened parliament.

“I’m getting that for you now.”

Nobody scrambled to turn Siri off, and there were no blushes to be seen, because everyone on the Speaker’s right – the new government – wore a mask.

Everyone on his left – including Pocock and the depleted Coalition – was barefaced.

Peter Dutton, on his first formal day as Opposition Leader, listened as Hurley opened his ­address with the government’s commitment to the voice.

At the welcome to country earlier in the day, Dutton, reading a written speech, had zeroed in on the practicalities of Indigenous Australia. “There is an incredible amount of work in front of us to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians; to do what past governments both Liberal and Labor and leaders in our communities have strived to do but fallen short in their endeavours,” he said.

“That is, to lift standards of living, to generate better educational outcomes, to address domestic ­violence and crime and to reduce mortality rates.”

Anthony Albanese during a welcome to country and smoking ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Not that long ago, Albanese said, the idea of opening parliament with a smoking ceremony seemed wildly ambitious before 2010. What would it mean? Was it in the standing orders? And then, he said, Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008 seemed equally wild – how would it work? “But it was important for our nation. It was a moment,” Albanese said. “And we in this parliament and as leaders of this country have another moment before us.

“The Uluru Statement From the Heart is a generous offer,” he said. “Generous. It’s a hand out, just saying please, hold it. Hold it. That’s all people are asking for.

“When I was raised, my mum was very strong about manners and the Uluru Statement From The Heart, to my mind, just should be seen as good manners.

“When you have issues that are affecting people, particularly people who have a history going back 65,000 years at least … why wouldn’t you grasp that generous and gracious offer?

“I know that Australians in the way that they deal with their lives are generous towards their neighbours, towards their community, and towards the whole country,” Albanese said.

“We see it replicated in the fact that people are wearing masks here today. People making decisions to look after each other.

“What the Uluru Statement From the Heart represents is an opportunity that must be seized, because if it isn’t seized it will be lost and we will be diminished. We have to seize the opportunity and we need to seize it in this term.”