It’s Albanese’s moment of truth, but he’s in a race against time |
It’s Albanese’s moment of truth, but he’s in a race against time
April 11, 2026 — 5:00am
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Parliament House in Canberra is a kind of time machine. The various parties can gather together physically, yet they can be decades apart in time.
Starting on the insurgent right, Pauline Hanson prefers to be in the 1950s. White Australia is in force, Indigenous Australians aren’t allowed to vote, all industry is protected and electricity comes from coal only.
On the left, the Greens like to imagine that it’s 2050. The energy transition is complete. Trucks, tractors and aircraft are all-electric and carbon fuels are banned. Farms are fertilised organically and all identities are equal, although some are more righteously angry than others.
The provincial conservative Nationals are in the late 1960s. White Australia is out of favour but trade protectionism is firmly in favour. Tariffs are high, loss-making manufacturers are subsidised. Renewable energy is the Snowy Hydro. Coal is beautiful.
As for the Liberals, Angus Taylor is in the late 1980s. Immigrants generally are OK, but some particular types are less OK. Women are welcome to vote but not to lead; climate change is a fringe fetish; and the free market reigns supreme. Andrew Hastie has other plans, but that’s all they are for now.
Then there’s Labor. Encumbered by exigencies of office, it has less scope for fantasising. Anthony Albanese came to power hoping that he could hold the status quo he inherited from Scott Morrison but with some adjustments.
The free-market 1980s and ’90s prevailed broadly but with some 21st century government intervention at the margin to accelerate the renewable energy transition, to promote some essential manufacturing and to encourage home building.
There were traditional Labor-style catch-up equity measures for the low-paid, some social benefits like Medicare and childcare were bolstered, but there was no Shorten-esque threat to redistribute wealth with the “politics of envy”.
Albanese hasn’t been as timid as alleged – the social media ban for kids was a big call, for example. His government’s embrace of Asia and the Pacific has been energetic. But, broadly, no sudden moves. He would make Labor the natural party of government by, as far as possible, being all........