Anthony Albanese is teaching Scott Morrison a lesson in the art of politics – picking the national mood to permit a change of government even when the public has no appetite for substantial change. If this happens, it will be an impressive tactical feat.
The launch revealed Labor still believes it is the election frontrunner. Its strategy is to present itself as the party of safe improvement, of compassionate renovation. It is ambitious in rhetoric but cautious in action.
There was no big spending, no grand vision, just retail politics – a focus on the household budget where nobody gets hurt. The great Australian Labor Party is reduced to symbolism and timidity amid a world and nation confronting immense challenges.
Labor doesn’t pretend to address the challenges of inflation, productivity, debt and national security – but it does offer the vision of driving an electric car across the Nullarbor.
Albanese’s plan is to sanction people to follow their instincts. He invites voters to dump the Prime Minister with his pitch that “we can do better”. The Labor tactic is more about voting out Morrison than voting in Labor. But a win is a win is a win. If Morrison loses, it will be largely self-inflicted.
Labor offers a transactional bargain: cheaper electricity, childcare, mortgages and medicines along with better wages and more electric vehicles. And if people are sceptical, its clinching message is that “we can’t bet our future” on another three years of Morrison.
It is fatuous just to blame Labor for timidity – like the Morrison government it is responding to a tired public that shuns challenge and audacity. This is a commentary on our culture.
The upshot is that Albanese defines himself by constant reference to Morrison. His pitch to become PM is that “I won’t run from responsibility”; that “I will show up”; that “I will step up”; and that I won’t “treat every crisis as a chance to blame someone else”. The competition over character is a smokescreen for the refusal to confront the depth of Australia’s policy problems.
Albanese invoked the Labor tradition as the party of big reforms, nominating Medicare, universal superannuation, the National Broadband Network, the NDIS and reshaping the economy.
He seemed oblivious to the contrast between the proud tradition he invoked and the embarrassing modesty of the initiatives he unveiled.
He branded Labor as the party of compassion, saying that “Labor’s plan for the future is about care” – childcare, Medicare and aged care. Where Morrison offered only “smirk and mirrors” Labor would look after the young, the sick and the aged. Its stance would be: “No one left behind.”
Labor would tackle the gender pay gap, prioritise nation-building, deliver secure jobs and promote climate change action.
Yet the economic dimension was narrow – exposing the unresolved chasm between Labor’s goals and the means to deliver better living standards and higher wages.
The launch radiated hope and confidence. But beneath the surface must be repressed terror. What if Labor has got this wrong? Victory seems within its grasp, but what if this safety-safety agenda is a folly? What if it allows Morrison to find his path to re-election? The stakes for Labor are immense.
Launching in Perth saw Labor strike at Morrison’s vulnerability. If Labor wins the three Perth seats it targets – Swan, Pearce and Hasluck – the government faces certain defeat since it cannot compensate for such losses.
The launch was defined by Albanese’s energy, Labor’s discipline and impressive optics that paraded WA Premier, Mark McGowan, Penny Wong, Jason Clare, former leader Bill Shorten and former prime ministers Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd. There were so many buried hatchets, political archaeologists would have had a field day.
Apart from Albanese, the crucial speech came from McGowan, the most popular premier in the nation. Albanese needed an unqualified endorsement – and he got it. McGowan said Albanese “always stood by Western Australia and supported us in the tough decisions we had to take”. He praised Albanese as resilient, authentic and the “real deal”. He had “every confidence” Albanese would make “a fine prime minister and a great partner for Western Australia”.
Mission accomplished – at least for the launch.
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There has never been a Labor launch like this. Powerful rhetoric and symbolism to conceal the most modest policy offering from federal Labor at any election in the past 50 years.