I’ll be more like a Bob Hawke or John Howard: Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese is pledging to end Labor’s class and climate wars, govern in the style of Bob Hawke and John Howard, and put the cost of living and wages at the centre of economic policy

Anthony Albanese will says Labor has spent the past three years being ‘diligent’ in ­trying to restore trust with the business community. Picture Emma Brasier

Anthony Albanese is pledging to end Labor’s class and climate wars, govern in the style of Bob Hawke and John Howard if ­elected, and put the cost of living and wages growth at the centre of Labor’s economic policy – in a re-run of former Labor leader Kevin Rudd’s 2007 promise to be a fiscal conservative.

In a sharp rebuttal of the platform Labor took to the last election in 2019, the Opposition Leader is seeking to assure the business community that he is pro-enterprise and will seek a new accord with unions to grow the economy and lift productivity.

The pre-election pitch to voters and business that he can be trusted to manage the economy comes as the Coalition sharpens its attack to portray Mr Albanese as a class-war warrior from the left side of politics who has a history of supporting higher taxation.

Mr Albanese is promising to pursue regulatory reform for business and cut red tape, while seeking to “rediscover the spirit of consensus” between Labor’s industrial wing and corporate Australia to encourage profits and put wages growth as a central theme of the Labor Party’s federal election pitch. He is also pushing back against criticism that he has not held an economic portfolio and is unqualified to be prime minister, saying his role as infrastructure minister in the Rudd government is qualification enough.

In a speech to be delivered to a Sydney summit on Wednesday, the Opposition Leader will say that he is seeking to reform the economy in the same fashion as former Liberal prime minister John Howard and Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.

In a veiled swipe at his predecessor Bill Shorten, he will say that Labor has spent the past three years being “diligent” in ­trying to restore trust with the business community, claiming company profits will be a key driver of growth.

“A former Liberal prime minister often said that in the race for economic reform, you would never reach the finish line because it was always advancing and there would always be something else to do to make our ­economy stronger and more productive,” Mr Albanese will say in his address to the business summit.

“I agree. It’s always a race – the race for improvement. But the current Liberal government has abandoned the field.”

Mr Albanese will also make the pledge to model a future Labor government on the Hawke/Keating era, rather than the Whitlam legacy that underpinned Labor’s 2019 election campaign pitch.

“If Labor is successful in the coming federal election, I will take my lead from Bob Hawke and his successor Paul Keating,” Mr Albanese will say.

“I want to bring Australians ­together to build a better future. We must put this nation on a growth trajectory that will lift ­living standards and underpin prosperity in coming decades.

“After nearly a decade of division and policy inertia under the Liberals and Nationals, collaboration lights our way forward.

“We must rediscover the spirit of consensus that former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke used to bring together governments, trade unions, businesses and civil society around their shared aims of growth and job creation.

“He brokered reforms that yielded benefits for all parties – not just better wages for workers, but stronger profits for businesses, along with the introduction (of) landmark reforms adding to the social dividend, such as Medicare and superannuation.

“The result was three decades of continuous economic growth.”

Mr Albanese will not promise anything in the way of New Economic Policy in his speech, but he will criticise the government for presiding over a decade of low wages growth and falling productivity – calling it a decade of lost opportunity.

The Opposition Leader is ­accusing the government of lost opportunity in which the economy has stalled and people’s living standards have declined.

“I’m not proposing revolution,” he will say. “But I am looking for renewal – renewal of the dormant national project to create wealth in a way that produces benefits for all Australians.”

Mr Albanese will borrow from Mr Keating’s mantra of growing the economic pie rather than using taxes to raise revenue, in another veiled refutation of the Shorten-era agenda.

“My team and I have worked with the business community to hear your concerns, consider your suggestions and establish ­relationships based on trust and respect,” the Opposition Leader will tell the Australian Financial Review summit.