Source : the age
The most revealing moment of the 2022 election campaign arrived when Anthony Albanese declared he would “absolutely” back a rise in the minimum wage. Here, suddenly, was Albanese himself: old Labor, on the side of the working class, clear where he stood.
In 2025, that moment arrived on election night, when Albanese spoke sharply to supporters who cheered the fact Peter Dutton had conceded defeat. “No”, he said, “what we do in Australia is we treat people with respect.” It would have been easy to lean into triumphalism or at least to let it pass. Instead, we saw a man who felt deeply that we should respect others, especially in their lowest moments. In his speech he invoked “kindness”; with that unexpected intervention he made concrete what he meant.
Credit: Artwork: Joe Benke
Albanese obviously feels strongly about these issues. It can sometimes take him time to work up to saying them – or perhaps for us to hear him. What is often forgotten about Albanese’s “absolutely” declaration is that it took him a few attempts to get there. He has spoken of “kindness” in politics before, but most prominently in last weekend’s debate when he declared “kindness isn’t weakness”. The same is true of his recent articulation of “the Australian way”. He began making this case quietly, in a line here or there; he has built and he built on it until, on Saturday, it led his victory speech, combined with “kindness”: “Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way, looking after each other while building for the future.”
Without US President Donald Trump’s intervention, this might have sounded vague and fluffy. After Trump, it sounded sharp and specific because we had seen its graphic opposite.
There are those who will say Trump muddied this election, that Australians voted on issues that had little to do with the real contest. But as a friend pointed out to me, it is perhaps more accurate to say that Trump had a clarifying effect, reminding Australians what was at stake. Yes, the parties agreed on various policies by election day. But the approaches of the two men leading those parties were strikingly different, as were their priorities and – most crucially – their understanding of Australia and Australians. Trump forced us to think about what sort of a country we wanted to live in. In 2025, we chose Albanese’s Australia over Dutton’s.
The prime minister’s precise articulation of his approach is new. The approach itself is not. Albanese’s maiden speech is a telling document, too little examined. Almost half of it is concerned with local issues. Much of it is about infrastructure, a portfolio he would later hold. He talks about the importance of an active public sector and of helping the working class. It is, as you would expect of a speech delivered 30 years ago, an old Labor view of politics. Which is more or less what we have had from Albanese these past three years. His version of reshaping the country appears, at this point, most akin to Gough Whitlam’s understanding of the importance of putting sewerage pipes into western Sydney: a belief that change is actively constructed over time, connecting one thing with another, slowly shifting the material facts of people’s lives so that they might have the chance to live different sorts of lives.
Typically, prime ministers know themselves better at the end of their first term than at the start. We know them better too, and better again after another election victory, when we are forced to reassess them in light of their renewed success and what it says about us as a collective: what aspects of this prime ministership have we, or those around us, been willing to embrace?
John Howard famously declared the times would suit him, which sounds quite passive. The truth is that Howard was suited by the times and fought to shape them. Albanese’s rhetoric on Saturday night gives some sense of how he is beginning to do the same: not by heedlessly imposing his will, but by emphasising those aspects he believes are most admirable, encouraging us to see ourselves a certain way. His victory will reinforce that conclusion, both for him and for us.
In politics, you make a range of long-term bets and hope your grasp of the country is better than your opponent’s. Before the referendum on the Voice, Albanese privately warned Dutton of the consequences of opposing. According to George Megalogenis’ account, Albanese told Dutton that those who voted “No” wouldn’t stay loyal to the Coalition. Those who voted “Yes”, though, would not forget Dutton’s choice.
Which is pretty much what happened. “Yes” voters probably didn’t punish Dutton directly for his stance; but arguably they and other voters ultimately punished him for what that stance indicated about his narrow vision of politics and Australia. Albanese was wrong about Labor’s chances of winning the referendum but right about the long-term fallout. Similarly, he could not have anticipated Trump’s tariffs. But he has been warning about “conflict fatigue” for years, pitching his tone as the right approach in volatile times. The times remained volatile. In both cases, Albanese made the correct bet on where the politics would land.
For some time now, Albanese has expressed a desire that Labor become the “natural party of government” in this country. This has usually sounded like the type of thing that may, if you get lucky, occur in 20 years. After Saturday, Albanese would be forgiven for wondering if he has achieved it in just three.
It is too early for such conclusions. But Albanese’s ability to position himself for the future, his instinctive understanding of the broader political conditions, means his opponents shouldn’t rule it out.
On Saturday, for the first time, it was possible to glimpse what few besides Albanese himself have understood. That is, how different Australia may look after several terms of a Labor government. Over his 11 years in power, Howard articulated a version of Australia to itself, matched it with policies and became a kind of personification of his era. After Saturday, it is possible to ask whether Albanese has begun to do the same for these times.
Sean Kelly is a regular columnist and a former adviser to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
