Anthony Albanese has revealed he has been diagnosed with Covid.
AAP reports that the Labor leader says he is feeling fine, and will isolate at his home in Sydney for the next seven days. “While at home I will continue my responsibilities as alternative prime minister and will be fighting for a better future for all Australians,” he said in a statement.
It is shocking timing and throws a massive unknown into proceedings. Albanese is still an mysterious quality for many Australians and was crisscrossing the country to make people comfortable with having him running the nation. May 21 suddenly seems a long way away.
Everyone wishes him a speedy recovery but politics can’t help but intrude. Will Labor elevate its deputy leader Richard Marles to acting leader? Will it push forward one of its top women – Tanya Plibersek or Kristina Keneally? Will some sort of collective leadership emerge?
Albanese is only 59, but that makes him the oldest man seeking to take an opposition party into government in 120 years of federal elections. Malcolm Fraser was sidelined during the 1975 election campaign but he was a firm favourite to win anyway.
An election that what we thought was the tailend of Covid has become a Covid election.
Mark Sawyer is a journalist with extensive experience in print and digital media in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Australia.