Anthony Albanese has declared that he has abandoned his left-wing and class-war views and is ready to govern the country before voters three days before the election.
The Labor leader, who was raised on the housing committee by a single mother, belongs to the party’s left faction and spent his youth speaking out against the privatization of businesses and advocating for higher taxes, including an inheritance tax.
But now, 59, he presents himself as a conventional centrist who will be friendly to business and aspiring Australians if he comes to power on May 21.
Mr. Albanese is depicted as a young man in Sydney. He became a federal deputy in 1996, at age 33.
“Some of my opinions, of course, have changed,” he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
Albanese, who owns three properties in Sydney and Canberra and earns $390,820 a year, said Australia is different now because of reforms under previous Labor governments.
“When the facts change, change your views,” he said, insisting that there has been a “change in political dynamics” since he was young.
Explaining why he supports stage three income tax cuts that in 2024 will raise the 45 per cent threshold from $180,000 to $200,000, he said: “I want people to have the certainty of knowing what their income will be.”
Albanese also stated that he has “as good a relationship with the business community as any other member of Parliament”.
It came after Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Daily Mail Australia last week that, in his opinion, Albanese has not changed.
Australian opposition leader Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon before his speech to the National Press Club.
Albanese is pictured campaigning for Medicare in 1996, when he first joined parliament.
“I don’t think Anthony Albanese has changed at all,” Morrison said.
“I think he’s the same conservative leftist he’s always been. My observation is that what always motivated him was the political struggle.’
In his speech, the Labor leader set out his plans to raise wages, improve aged care, make childcare cheaper and produce more in Australia.
Repeating one of his campaign slogans, he promised that under his leadership “no one will be held back and no one will be left behind.”
I don’t think Anthony Albanese has changed at all.
Albanese also criticized Morrison as “weak” for leaking private text messages with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Morrison had leaked the texts last year in a bid to show Macron knew Australia’s $90 billion submarine contract with a French company was on the ropes, after the president claimed the prime minister He lied to her.
Rejecting Coalition claims that it would be weak on foreign policy, Mr Albanese said: “You know what’s weak? Weak is leaking a private text message with an ally. That’s weak.
—Because you’re under pressure. You’ve got a bad headline… oh well, just throw it out and then say, “Oh, I don’t know where that came from,” she added.
Albanese (pictured with partner Jodie Hayden) insisted he will be a friend to business in government.
Albanese often speaks of being raised in public housing in Camperdown town center by a single mother who suffered from chronic rheumatoid arthritis and was dependent on a disability pension. She appears in the photo with his mother Maryanne, who according to Albanese would be proud of him.
The Labor leader also enthused about the Coalition’s promise to improve public service efficiency by asking department heads to find savings.
“Yesterday they stood up and said, ‘we’re going to cut public service even more,'” he said.
You know what that leads to: robodebt. It doesn’t save money. It costs money because humans are excluded from human services and has devastating consequences for real people.
‘It costs lives. Lives! Plus more than a billion dollars for taxpayers.”
Under the Robodebt scheme, which ran between 2016 and 2019, hundreds of thousands of Australians were wrongly ordered to repay welfare payments.
Taxpayers reached a $1.8 billion settlement to compensate victims.
Also in the speech, Albanese announced that he will cut $750 million in government subsidies to help repair the budget if he becomes prime minister.
Albanese said funding for the community development grant program would be reduced by $350 million.
The opposition leader also promised to return $400 million from the regionalization fund to the budget, calling it an example of “waste and waste.”
“It will be my mission and my responsibility to ensure that every dollar spent in the budget is used to drive the productivity growth we need to pay down the Liberal debt,” he said in the speech.
“This announcement today is the beginning of budget repair and cleaning up the mess we will inherit.”
The Labor leader is pictured in 1986 at the National Labor Youth Conference in Hobart when he was 23 years old.
Albanese’s wife of 19 years, Carmel Tebbutt, left him on New Year’s Day 2019. They had been together 30 years. “What I had to accept was that I needed to accept it rather than understand it,” she says. The former couple appears in the photo.
The speech came after the latest wage price index figures revealed that wages rose by 2.4 per cent last year, well behind inflation of 5.1 per cent.
The Labor leader acknowledged he would face significant financial challenges if he wins, with debt expected to hit $1 trillion.
“We will inherit the worst accounting of any incoming government since federation,” he said.
‘This government has borrowed more, taxed more and spent more than the Labor Party and delivered far less. To build a better future, we need a better budget. Workers are committed to being responsible economic managers.’
With the last term in parliament dominated by Covid-19, Albanese promised that an incoming Labor government would learn the lessons of the pandemic.
Do you know what is weak? Weak leaks private text message with an ally
The opposition leader said recent years had shown the vulnerabilities of the national economy, such as insecure work and the risk of companies being exposed to crises in the global supply chain.
“These problems are not new; most are the inevitable end result of a decade of cuts, mismanagement and neglect,” he said.
“Australian workers are paying the price for a decade of bad policies and economic failures, while Scott Morrison says they should be rewarded with another three years.”
While Albanese has advocated for an increase in the minimum wage to keep up with inflation and the cost of living, the opposition leader said he would review whether to increase welfare payments.
He said Labor would try to do what it could in the area within the government’s inherited fiscal limits.
“You don’t really need a review to know that someone receiving a pension is having a hard time right now,” he said.
“Every time a budget is passed we will consider what we can do for pensioners and also for people using JobSeeker.”
Morrison is pictured with his wife Jenny outside his RAAF plane which he took around the country during the election campaign. He doesn’t believe his opponent has changed.