Labor and the next federal election

Will there be an election this year? Certainly, the opinion polls suggest there might be: Australia’s Liberal/National Coalition is both in government and pretty strongly in the lead. This makes the recent contretemps over the Opposition (Labor Party) cabinet shuffles – a few people moved sideways, and no big changes – seem faintly ridiculous. As though people were upset by a missing slice of cake when they’ve still each got a piece sitting in their comfortable, warm laps.

Perhaps the voters might want more tea. I prefer mine white with no sugar. Labor has announced some sweeteners, recently coming out with a reversal on their toxic franking credits levy. I heard this little snippet of Canberra gossip when I was driving my car in Marrickville. It was just near the point where my car always reminds me of frequent accidents. A difficult stretch of road with many side-streets to complicate things. 

I am not sure that Labor has quite got the message with regard to the older vote. There are still a few other tax policies that the party took from the Greens, including the one about negative gearing. Time to strip that away too?

The environment seems to have got people talking on social media as Anthony Albanese relieved Mark Butler of this portfolio (I almost said Richard Marles – so difficult with all these pale, male, stale pollies and their aggressively echoing names!) and gave it to Chris Bowen (who officiated over Bill Shorten’s 2019 implosion, at least the dismal economic bits of it). One of the things in the following doesn’t fit, can you see which?

Sesame Street might be a more amenable location for Albanese to situate his front bench than Parliament, which starts to sit for this year next week. Two-p.m. won’t be the same! I wonder what questions Albanese will serve up to the PM.

Labor has plenty of work to do to convince the electorate that it has the chops for a challenge. They do need a credible and aggressive environment policy but will always be mindful of how Shorten’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions for the national fleet – to a too-low level – failed in 2019 to give them an edge. Something however is needed to engage with the electorate, as everyone’s watching the polls. Perhaps they could take a leaf out of Twiggy Forrest’s notebook.  Clean tech must cut through with the unions as well as with voters. Even if the Labor Party doesn’t get up at the next election, a policy change of this kind might set the hares running. 

Everyone loves a chase, including the Liberals, but can you promote hydrogen for steel production without angering miners and their employees? Tally ho!