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Anthony Albanese plays it safe · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Kristin Amiot.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, December fourth. Billionaire Richard White has told investors
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: his decision to step down from the company he founded
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: was a circuit breaker and necessary to protect Wise Tech's future.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: It comes after details of the former chief executive's personal
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: life were made public in court proceedings brought by a
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: former lover. A man allegedly connected to the murders of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: two women in Collingwood almost fifty years ago touchdown in
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Melbourne on Tuesday night, Perry Karimblus was extradited from Rome,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: where he's been held in custody since September. He's expected
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to be formally charged in the coming days, but maintains
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: he's innocent of the nineteen seventy seven crime. Those stories
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: alive right now at The Australian dot com dot a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: u Who is Anthony Albanesi really? In today's episode, The
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Australian's Editor at Large unpacks the PM's brilliant strategic mind
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and asks if he's the right person for the nation's
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  Speaker 1: top job. There were seventy six bills on the table
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  Speaker 1: last week. The final sitting week of the parliamentary year.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: It was a hell of a mountain for the government
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  Speaker 1: to climb, but incredibly, thirty two of them passed in
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  Speaker 1: a single day. It was during this torrent of legislation
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  Speaker 1: that Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi got a big win.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: In a world first, Australian children under sixteen will be
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: banned from social media as Parliament passes strict new laws.
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  Speaker 2: The move has attracted global attention. With the Albanesi government
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  Speaker 2: rushing the.
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  Speaker 1: Bills, Labour had every right to celebrate the social media
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  Speaker 1: band's passage. After making major concessions on key pieces of
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  Speaker 1: legislation at the eleventh hour.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: A bill aimed at cracking down on misinformation and disinformation
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  Speaker 2: on the Internet has been pulled by the federal government.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: The government's proposal to ban or restrict gambling advertising has
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: also been delayed. Still riding the high of that bipartisan victory,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the PM shrewdly intervened in a dispute between Environment Minister
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Tanya Plibasek and Tasmanian salmon farmers, who say her attempts
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to protect an endangered fish are threatening their livelihoods. The
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Australian's Editor at Large Paul Kelly says, these past few
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: weeks are telling. This is who Anthony Albanesi is.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: When Parliament broke last week, Anthony Albanesi was in a
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  Speaker 3: mood of a brilliant who'd passed a lot of legislation
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  Speaker 3: through the Senate. Albanzi is essentially a tactical prime minister.
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  Speaker 3: He's not a prime Minister of transformation. He's not a
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  Speaker 3: golf Whitlam, Bob Hawk or a por Keating. He's very
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  Speaker 3: much the transactional leader. It's all about political tactics. It's
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: all about maintaining his position at the election. Now, all
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: this is well and good, but the point I'd make
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: is we live in an age of transformation. Whether we're
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: talking now about the strategic outlook in the world from
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  Speaker 3: Shi Jinping to Donald Trump, whether we're talking about the economy,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: the challenge of inflation, this is an age of disruption.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: It's an age of profound change. It's an age of transformation.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Just being a tactical leader is not going to be enough.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Labour's historic twenty twenty two federal election win was followed
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: by as good a run as any new government can
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: hope to have. Australia's frosty relationship with China started to thaw.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: An ambitious twenty thirty emissions reductions target was legislated, the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: long promised National Anti Corruption Commission became a reality. But
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: by the middle of this term the vibe had shifted.
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  Speaker 1: Australia was plunged into a national housing crisis as inflation soared,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: an immigration to tension debacle saw labor scrambling to maintain
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: voter confidence, and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament was resoundingly
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: defeated in a referendum following a confusing and ineffective Yes
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  Speaker 1: campaign captained by the Prime Minister.
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  Speaker 4: My fellow Australians at the outset, I want to say
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  Speaker 4: that while tonight's result is not one that I had
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  Speaker 4: hoped for, I absolutely respect the decision of the Australian
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  Speaker 4: people and the democratic process that has delivered it.
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  Speaker 3: We need a bolder leader. This is the time when
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  Speaker 3: we need bold policies. We need policies of transformation. Now.
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  Speaker 3: I know that's not easy, and I know that Anthony
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Old and Easy in particular has limits on what he
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: can do. But he ran in twenty twenty two on
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  Speaker 3: a policy of reassurance. That is, he didn't run on
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  Speaker 3: a radical agenda. He ran on a policy designed to
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  Speaker 3: deny Scott Morrison the capacity to run a negative campaign
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: against him. So he remains committed to that policy of reassurance.
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  Speaker 3: It's a policy that he calls safe change. I understand this,
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  Speaker 3: and essentially what we've got here is the conflict between
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: the politics and the times. The times demand bol policies
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: from a prime minister, but the politics are based on caution.
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  Speaker 3: If you're a bowl prime minister, that's high risk. The
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Australian public are very hypocritical. They say they want strong leadership,
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  Speaker 3: but they're divided about how you define strength, and if
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: a prime minister starts delivering strong leadership, he's likely to
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  Speaker 3: run into trouble.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanesi is widely expected to call an election for
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  Speaker 1: early twenty twenty five, though a promise made this week
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to bring parliament back in February suggests it might not
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: be in March as first thought. So that means you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: are confirming that they will be sitting of parliament in February.
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  Speaker 2: We fully expect to be sitting in February.
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  Speaker 1: So does that give Anthony Albanesi enough time to become
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  Speaker 1: the leader Australia needs right now.
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  Speaker 3: He's not going to change. He's defined. He's defined as
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  Speaker 3: a transactional and tactical Prime minister and he will use
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: these skills in this approach when it comes to the
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: election next year in twenty twenty five. So it's going
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: to be a tight contest between Albanesi and Dutton. But
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: the challenge Peter Dutton faces as Liberal leader, it's essentially
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: the same. Dutton has got to devise what's going to
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: be an effective policy framework for himself. He hasn't. Peter
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Dutt has told us virtually nothing about the agenda that
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  Speaker 3: he's going to take to the election campaign. And all
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: these people confidently telling us that Peter Dutton's got a
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  Speaker 3: very high chance of winning the election. I don't see
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  Speaker 3: how they can possibly make this claim, seeing we don't
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  Speaker 3: even know yet the fundamental policies that he's going to
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  Speaker 3: take to the election, and we know from what's happened
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  Speaker 3: in the past that there are great dangers here. Once
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  Speaker 3: an opposition leader has got to be defined by his policies,
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  Speaker 3: then it's a great opportunity for his opponents. This is
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  Speaker 3: what alban Is he is waiting for. He's going to
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: wage a savage negative campaign against Peter Dutton. He's going
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  Speaker 3: to wage it on his character, He's going to wage
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  Speaker 3: it on his negativity, but he's going to wage it
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  Speaker 3: above all on his policies. When Dutton's policy has eventually
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: come out, I think this is going to be very important.
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  Speaker 3: What will be the nature of Dutton's policies and to
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  Speaker 3: what extent will they give Albanizi the chance to really
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: campaign against them?
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Coming up? Does the PM keep his friends close or
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: his enemies closer? Anthony Albanesi won the twenty twenty two
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: election by the slimmest of margins, and Labor has governed
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: with just a one seat majority in the House of
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Representatives ever since. They're staring down the barrel of a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: federal election at a time when incumbent governments around the
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: world are being toppled by frustrated voters. It's rare for
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: second term governments to increase their majority, and that means
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: if Labor gets up at the next election, it might
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: need to form a coalition with the Greens if it
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: wants to move forward with its legislative agenda. So how
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: does the PM deal with perception or the reality that
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: he's in bed with an old foe this close to
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  Speaker 1: an election.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: The interesting thing about last week was most of the
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  Speaker 3: legislation which was passed in the Senate was passed on
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  Speaker 3: Labor Green votes, and this was a win for Albanesi.
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  Speaker 3: There's no question about that. He didn't offer many concessions
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  Speaker 3: to the Greens and they came on board. But it's
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  Speaker 3: quite interesting, isn't it, Because if in fact, in the
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  Speaker 3: next parliament there's going to be a minority Labor government,
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  Speaker 3: a minority Albanesi government, then that will be a government
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: that functions with a large degree of Green support. So
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: in a sense, Albanesi's success in the parliament last week
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  Speaker 3: is a forerunner of what might be the future a
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  Speaker 3: Labor Green minority government as far as the Labor Party
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  Speaker 3: is concerned. Dutton will campaign on this, There's no question
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  Speaker 3: about that at all. He's basically going to say the
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: future is between a coalition government that you know and
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  Speaker 3: an experimental Labor Green toel government. What Alberizi will argue,
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  Speaker 3: in turn, is what happened last week proves that he
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  Speaker 3: can dictate terms to the Greens, that he won't be
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  Speaker 3: beholden to the Greens when he's dealing with them, he'll
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  Speaker 3: be a strong leader, and the fact that he was
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  Speaker 3: able to successfully dictate terms to the Greens on that
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  Speaker 3: legislation last week will be put forward by Albanesi as
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  Speaker 3: an example of what he can do. If Albanesi is
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  Speaker 3: forced into minority government, he won't do what Julia Gillard did.
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  Speaker 3: If he's to get a commission from the Governor General,
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  Speaker 3: only one thing counts. That is, he doesn't have to
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: do a deal with the Greens. All he's got to
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  Speaker 3: do to get a commission from the Governor General is
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: to have the confidence of the Parliament. So I think
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  Speaker 3: in that sense Alberanzi, who lived through the Gillard experience,
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  Speaker 3: will know that he's in a strong position when it
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: comes to that question of confidence, provided he's got more
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  Speaker 3: seats in the Parliament than Dutton.
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  Speaker 1: Just lastly, Paul, the Greens did unexpectedly well at their
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two election thanks to some savvy maneuvers on
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  Speaker 1: the campaign trail. What are their prospects coming into twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five do you think and what does that mean
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  Speaker 1: for Anthony Albeneasy.
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  Speaker 3: This I think is a difficult question because the Greens
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  Speaker 3: have made a number of mistakes, but they've also exploited
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: a number of opportunities. If we look at housing for example,
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  Speaker 3: certainly the Greens have been running on housing for the
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  Speaker 3: last few years in order to build up their support
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  Speaker 3: among renters, among young people, and so if one just
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: looks at that, you might suspect that the Greens are
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: in a good position to increase their vote. But if
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: you look in a broader sense, the Greens have become
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  Speaker 3: a far more radical party, and particularly when it comes
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: to the conflict in the Middle East, so that may
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  Speaker 3: well be undermining them in the electorate. And the fact
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  Speaker 3: that last week they came on board to support a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the legislation they'd previously been opposing suggests that
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  Speaker 3: the Greens themselves are concerned about their standing in the electorate.
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  Speaker 3: So it's hard to tell at this stage how they'll perform.
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  Speaker 3: There are opportunities and negatives for them in terms of
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: their performance in recent times.
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  Speaker 1: Paul Kelly is The Australian's editor at large. You can
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: read his column right now at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot au