Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used a media interview this week to boldly declare that if he wins the next federal election he will serve a full term.
That would make him the oldest Prime Minister since John Howard lost the 2007 election.
Albo is about to turn 62, before the next elections. That would make him 65 years old, if he actually served a full three-year term.
But age aside, the real problem is that whether the prime minister serves a full term or not is not really his decision.
Even if the recent purchase of a retirement home on the Central Coast – a $4.3 million waterfront mansion – is not a harbinger of what is planned, it will be the Labor party room that will decide how long Albo will remain as prime minister.
Assuming voters don’t take that decision out of their hands when they cast their ballots on Election Day.
And the disempowerment of Albo’s decision about his future does not end there.
Even if Labor MPs think he is the best person to remain in the top job, if as expected Labor is reduced to a minority government, it will not be government MPs who will have the most say over Albo’s longevity in The Lodge.
The crossbench will control the fate of the minority government and the prime minister.
More specifically, the Greens will do it.
Anthony Albanese took advantage of a media interview this week to declare that he will serve a full term, if he wins the federal elections scheduled for the coming months.
Even more specifically, its leader Adam Bandt will be the one who decides whether or not to allow Albo to retain the position of prime minister.
Because if Bandt and his team decide that a second term of the Labor government is not doing enough in the policy areas that concern the Greens most, they can withdraw their support for Labor and force the minority government to go to the polls.
So when Albo sits down for an interview this side of the election, he takes the opportunity to declare his intention to serve a full term, taking the promise with a heavy reserve of salt.
Because it’s not your decision.
Albo has been in parliament since 1996. When he leaves, he will be well provided for under the old and generous parliamentary super scheme.
The same scheme protects you from other announced pension changes that increase the tax the rest of us must pay when we retire.
What is good for the goose is not always good for the gander.
In fact, the old parliamentary superscheme is so generous that, when he retires, Albo will earn more than he earned at any point in his political career before becoming prime minister.
And once he turns 65, he will earn more than he did as prime minister, because he won’t have to pay taxes on what he earns.
That has to make retirement attractive for a prime minister who is about to remarry and embark on a new life in a newly purchased residence.
If Albo heads a minority government, Greens leader Adam Bandt will likely be in the box to decide whether the prime minister stays or goes.
No wonder Labor MPs fighting to retain marginal seats are so angry with the way Albo has projected a “who cares” attitude in recent months. It seems like he already has one foot outside The Lodge.
That’s why his interview was necessary: to provide a reset to start this election year in an attempt to head off questions about his future.
While a re-elected Albo would become the oldest Australian prime minister since Howard, he is a relative junior compared to the political class elsewhere in the world.
Take the United States as an example. Outgoing President Joe Biden is 82 years old and barely functioning. Incoming President Donald Trump is now 78 years old and about to spend four more years in the White House.
Whether Albo wins the next election and serves a full term or not, there is one thing we can be sure of.
He will not match the ages of Biden and Trump during the remainder of his political career. By then, hopefully, he will be healthy and happy, settled in his seaside mansion in Copacabana, retired.
Maybe a grumpy old man, a little frustrated by the pain in his eyes from all those ugly cabins littering the beautiful view of the beach below him.