Expecting a “courageous” Anthony Albanese (as Sir Humphrey Appleby might say) following Labor’s spectacular re-election on Saturday? Andrew Gardiner reports the realities of politics dictate we rein in those expectations.
Since 2023, some very telling (and, for the most part, uncontested) stories have circulated about one of the men pivotal to how the Albanese Government’s second term plays out. Labor numbers man, puller-of-strings and Special Minister of State Don Farrell – whose alleged “stitch up” of independents over donation and expenditure caps made headlines – emerges from neither smelling like a rose.
The first involved pushing in and queue jumping to get a photo with footy legend Dermott Brereton before everyone else at the 2023 AFL Grand Final. “It was just the sense of entitlement … then to say ‘I’m a minister’,” a bewildered Brereton told 2GB.
The second, more applicable anecdote concerns Farrell recounting another 2023 exchange, this time with Simon Holmes à Court, whose Climate 200 crowd-funds for independent candidates. On Holmes à Court’s charge the new donation and expenditure laws would entrench a tired two-party system, he exclaimed: “that’s the f..king point!”
For folks like Farrell, who hails from the centrist ‘Shoppies’ Union and last year was named top of a list of covert Canberra power players, ideology appears less important than power itself. His party, the ALP, broadly supports a raft of popular progressive policy outcomes, yet Farrell clearly sees “Teal” independents who share many of those same goals as the enemy.
“Teals blackmailing us” won’t happen with a majority Labor government, he said on Sunday.
If you think Farrell’s entitled, combative, power-driven style is a one-off in the Labor Cabinet, consider who picked him to be Minister for Trade and Tourism, plus Special Minister of State. That’s the same man who chose Resources Minister Madeleine (fossil fuels “will be needed for decades”) King, Communications Minister Michelle (media ownership inquiry “is not warranted”, no gambling ads reforms yet) Rowland, and Richard (AUKUS is “too big to fail”) Marles.
PM Anthony Albanese. Insets (clockwise from top left): Don Farrell, Richard Marles, Madeleine King, Michelle Rowland. IMAGE: ‘X’.
The man who picked this uninspiring quartet was, of course, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Now more than ever after Saturday’s landslide victory, ‘Albo’ calls the shots. Lofty expectations for his second term should, perhaps, be tempered by past performance.
Albo emboldened?
Post-election chatter among the commentariat was all about how a second Labor term (and a bigger majority in Parliament) would embolden the PM. “Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way, looking after each other while building for the future”, said ‘Albo’ in his victory speech, sparking a glimmer of hope we might have a leader belatedly prepared to loosen the neo-imperial shackles on foreign policy, and even, perhaps, on some egregious Defence arrangements.
News Corp outlets quote sources who describe the election result as “a strong endorsement of Labor’s agenda, which includes bold promises like universal childcare and bulk-billed GP visits for all Australians”. Others weren’t so gracious, the Daily Mail’s Peter van Onselen framing ‘boldness’ around a few exuberant lines at Labor’s victory celebration: “Saturday night wasn’t … an endorsement of (Labor’s) ill-fated foray into the culture wars via (a return to) the Voice” and welcome to country, he tut-tutted.
While it remains to be seen whether the PM will deliver on them, Labor did go to the election with a raft of promises that were, yes, bold at times. On health, for example, he wants a 24-hour ‘1800MEDICARE’ service to allow patients access to free after-hours general practice telehealth consultations, and 50 new urgent care clinics by June 2026, on top of the 87 already in existence.
On Industrial relations, the PM vowed to protect penalty rates for workers, making them the law. Meanwhile, he pledged to shave 20 per cent off the student debt loans for around three million Australians in a matter of weeks from now.
Fossil fuel rule
While that’s all very impressive, what of the areas where ‘Albo’ disappointed many Australians during his first term? Like the near blank cheque given to fossil fuel projects and exports, which, in many cases, incur next to no royalties or taxes.
In a hung parliament, the Greens pledged to crack down on such projects, and independent David Pocock wanted to tax ($) gas exports. But to Farrell’s delight, the former scenario never came to pass.
After fossil fuel interests gave Labor $668,425 over the past financial year, we can forget about any changes on that front.
Then there’s the scourge of gambling ads, which ‘Albo’ infamously promised to reform the rules around. The late Dunkley MP Peta Murphy wanted a blanket ban on all gambling advertising, but following her death, Canberra watered it down to a cap of two gambling ads per hour ($) on each channel before 10 pm, with no ads an hour before and after live sport.
Even that was shelved pre-election, after ‘Albo’ himself reportedly intervened. Labor gets a chaff bag of money from this industry; expect no ‘boldness’ on that front either.
Another day, another gas approval as Labor caves on big dirty Barossa
AUKUS may be legally impossible to get out (not to mention political suicide) so ‘Albo’ has a fair excuse to avoid sticking his neck out against that generational albatross. As for more public hearings at the NACC corruption watchdog, there’s a reason Labor and the L-NP originally stopped that, but it’s shrouded in secrecy. .
Who knows? Perhaps Labor’s worried it might be them one day.
AUKUS submarines money drain is well under way – to the UK and the US
Media reform
Finally, we come to the holy grail of media reform. ‘Albo’, of all people, knows it’s utterly necessary to ensure his side gets a fair go but, more than that, to ensure something resembling a level playing field in the battle of ideas.
But he knows that any past media mistreatment he simmers over would pale into insignificance next to the Jihad he’d face if he took on the likes of Murdoch and Stokes. He is unlikely to go there.
You might have noticed a subtle shift in messaging from the top end of town during the election’s final week. To the “all Dutton all the time” catapulted into our zeitgeist, the usual suspects in corporate media added this wrinkle: “minority government would be a disaster”.
“For the good of the country, one of (the major parties) must win majority government lest our futures be in the hands of the mad Greens, self-serving teals or the independent rabble,” the Adelaide Advertiser’s pre-election editorial read, its sentiments echoed from coast to coast. Apparently, curbing gambling addiction by ending those wacky Sportsbet ads, or taxing the multinationals ripping our resources out of the ground – policies pushed by Greens and “Teals” alike – is seen as nothing but “madness” by the powerful.
The shift in messaging worked. While the L-NP was their preferred option, fossil fuel and gambling interests (among others) were petrified of a minority government scenario, in which “mad Greens and self-serving teals” could achieve what to them was the Armageddon of actual reform.
Labor – with its Don Farrells*, Madeleine Kings and Anthony Albaneses – was a satisfactory second best. “Just try and avoid any ‘boldness’, right Albo? There’s a good fella”.
During Labor’s second term, it seems Australia has to settle for second best, too.
*MWM reached out to Senator Farrell’s office for comment, but had not heard back by deadline.
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An Adelaide-based graduate in Media Studies, with a Masters in Social Policy, I was an editor who covered current affairs, local government and sports for various publications before deciding on a change-of-vocation in 2002.