Anthony Albanese celebrated 100 days as prime minister with an address to the National Press Club on Monday and perhaps a quick skull of a foaming frostie.
In cricketing terms, his century means he gets to take fresh guard, assess the field settings, and strike out to greater things as the opposition wilts under the onslaught.
The two-day Jobs and Skills Summit on Thursday and Friday is looking encouraging. The Better Off Overall Test will be a focus. Despite the lowest jobless figures in 48 years, there are massive challenges in the vital sectors of the workforce. But there are indications that employers and unions will try to make the government’s life easier as it grapples with the shortage of skilled workers in vital sectors.
Meanwhile, pressure is building on Labor to abandon the third stage of tax cuts scheduled in 2024. On the weekend Nine Newspapers reported that nine of the 18 crossbenchers in the House and Senate want this, along with the Greens. A few of the other nine crossbenchers are open to persuasion. Labor has pledged to keep the tax cuts, which overwhelmingly favour the wealthy, and will cost the budget $243 billion over 10 years.
Albanese fielded two questions on the issue at the Press Club and stood by Labor’s pledge to proceed with the cuts, which were legislated by the Morrison government.
Economic arguments aside, this has the potential to be a headache for Labor. Abandon the election promise to keep the tax cuts, and Albanese wins plenty of back pats from the progressive side of politics. The crossbench and the Greens represent about two-thirds of the one-third of voters who did not support Labor or the Coalition on May 21. So that sounds like a win-win.
But Labor becomes vulnerable to the charge from conservatives that it says anything to get elected. That’s not a problem for the crossbenchers, who live in the best of both worlds. After the corruption and ineptitude of the Coalition’s rule, ”integrity” has become the holy grail. The crossbenchers have ridden the zeitgeist by stressing the importance of integrity in all aspects of politics.
And if they nudge Labor towards the breaking of an election promise, they get to crow about their influence.
The Coalition is like a turtle on its back now. But if it gets its act together, it will have a cudgel to wield against ”weak” Labor at the 2025 election.
Keep an election promise or win applause in the right places? A dicey dilemma for Labor, but that’s the price of being a party of government. There was certainly no ringing endorsement of the tax cuts by Albanese on Monday. More a vibe of ”nothing we can do; we’re stuck with them”.
Mark Sawyer is a journalist with extensive experience in print and digital media in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Australia.