Campbell: Why Albo’s age may become an issue in the next year

Anthony Albanese will be 62 at the next election, 65 at the one after that. At some point in the next year, Albo is going to have to answer the question of what he’s going to do when he turns 64, writes James Campbell.

In 2000, the year John Howard turned 61, no one thought it odd speculation turned to when he might consider calling it a day.

To push the question off into what at the time must have seemed like the never-never, Howard referred to the song written by a 14-year-old Paul McCartney by saying he would consider his position when he was 64. By the time that birthday rolled around three years later, Howard had made it clear he was going nowhere.

Indeed, 20 years later, he’s still with us, and from my limited interactions with him in the past year or so, I’d have to say as sharp as ever. As is Sir Paul himself, who far from doing the garden and digging the weeds, at 81 is touring the world with his band and, if recent photos are to be believed, still enjoying the occasional rollup.

So it’s unsurprising when this year Anthony Albanese reached the age at which people began to wonder how long Howard planned to be with us, the anniversary was passed over in silence by commentators. Not least because so many of them are in fact older than the Prime Minister and by more than a short half-head.

Some of this indifference to Albo’s age is because we’re all living and working longer, not to mention that, compared to Joe Biden and Donald Trump, our PM is a callow youth.

Anthony Albanese in his Radio Birdman T-shirt like he was a Gen-Xer. Picture: Facebook

But some of it is also down to the image Albanese has cultivated. Having been born in 1963, Albo is technically a Baby Boomer but his musical tastes – Midnight Oil, Violent Femmes, The Clash, Billy Bragg – have always made him seem more like a Gen-Xer.

If you were an undergraduate in the 1980s, there was a familiar type – the early-30s arts graduate with a Radio Birdman T-shirt who booked the bands for union nights and had his name on the door at every gig in town – Albo could have been that guy.

Anthony Albanese is keen to show he still has it. Picture: Instagram

It turns out, however, while an obsession with youth culture might seem absurd for a man in his 40s and even his 50s, if maintained into his 60s it becomes evidence of continued vigour rather than a refusal to grow up. As more time passes, Albo’s craft beers and his decks might come to be seen like Putin’s shirtless horsing riding as an example of a leader keen to show he still has it.

The irony here is that though Scott Morrison – a real Gen-Xer born in 1968 – has similar tastes in music to Albo. Check out his original real Spotify playlist. His daggy-dad persona always made him seem older, the suburban ideal of the 1970s transplanted to a stranger, more complicated time.

Seriously though, while for whatever reason until now Albo’s age hasn’t been an issue, this won’t stay the case forever and not just because of the meandering performances he’s been giving at media conferences.

The reason is because as we head into the final year of this parliament – which is likely to run close to the full three years – you can expect people’s minds to turn to whether Albo plans to be there for another three. The chances are by the time we go to the polls next year, he will be 62, which means if parliament also goes full term, he’ll be 65 at the election after that. It is going to be hard for Albo to convince us that, if we re-elect him, he won’t leave some time in the following term.

He could level with us and say if he’s returned, he’ll leave at some point in the following two years. Except he can’t – the Westminster system won’t allow it. The moment a prime minister admits he’s not politically immortal, his authority just melts away – as Albo would be aware from the experience of British PM Tony Blair. Not long after his 2005 election victory, he announced he would step down within a year and immediately regretted it, with power moved immediately to his likely successor.

It hasn’t started yet, but at some point in the next year, Albo, like Howard before him, is going to have to answer the question of what he’s going to do when he turns 64.

Originally published as Campbell: Why Albo’s age may become an issue in the next year