Finally Labor MPs are beginning to realize that perhaps they ceded too much power to their new Prime Minister immediately after his election victory.
Buoyed by winning the 2022 election, Labor MPs were quick to embrace Anthony Albanese’s agenda.
It started with the Voice campaign, and what a disaster it turned out to be.
Despite the failure of the referendum campaign, the arrogance of unbridled power within the Labor government has meant that Albo’s ego remains unchecked.
The problem for the Labor Party is that it is too late to do anything about it.
Despite rhetorical claims that Albo planned to run a traditional cabinet government, the fact is that the prime minister created an inner sanctum of long-standing factional allies and friends, eschewing the collective wisdom of those around the cabinet table. cabinet.
Albo, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher are the inner sanctum. All members of the left faction. All guided by the awakened thinking of the city center.
The groupthink of these three is spectacularly out of touch with the outer metropolitan fringe constituencies.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Albo toppled enemies (Kim Carr), sidelined potential rivals (Tanya Plibersek), and secured the promotion of obsequious supporters (Kristy McBain).
Labor is starting to realize that MPs ceded too much power to Anthony Albanese (above)
His carefully selective determinations about his colleagues did not end there.
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten was reduced to running the NDIS and the once all-powerful right in New South Wales was strategically positioned in portfolios and parliamentary roles designed to weaken their power, pitting them against each other.
The arrogance of the election victory masked how mediocre the campaign and victory really were.
Particularly Albo’s performance. The best week of Labour’s campaign was when its leader was forced to stay home with Covid.
Reflecting that disappointing performance since then, Prime Minister Albo’s personal approval ratings have fallen more sharply than the party vote.
It is a sure sign that he is now a liability for Labour, rather than a positive, as we prepare for another election campaign.
Yet Albo remains strangely all-powerful within the Labor Party.
It’s easy to forget that the Labor Party won the 2022 election with a record primary vote, garnering just 32.6 per cent voter support.
Kirsty McBain was quickly promoted to the foreign ministry after her election.
Tanya Plibersek was handed the Environment portfolio, in what was widely seen as a sidelining of one of Albanese’s rival factions.
The majority government demanded that Labor win 77 seats, and that is exactly how many seats they won. A threadbare majority: the worst performance by a winning opposition since the Second World War.
However, Albo later commented privately that his authority was absolute and that he was not wrong.
Changes to Labor leadership rules instituted by Kevin Rudd helped consolidate that authority.
The rise of the Teals distracted attention from Labour’s minimalist victory.
We now see a chorus of former Labor loyalists raising the alarm about the extent to which the Albanian Labor government has lost its way.
Former union leader and co-architect of the economic reforms of the 1980s, Bill Kelty, says the current Labor government is “mired in mediocrity”.
Former Labor senator and cabinet minister Kim Carr has published a new book in which he writes that “the Labor ship has hit the rock of identity politics, and too many of its spokespersons adopt a censorious tone towards those who fail embrace their rights.” particular social policy agendas.”
It refers to you, Albo, among others.