Comment

Paul Bongiorno
The spoils of war

Anthony Albanese, speaking in the prime minister’s courtyard on Monday, proudly proclaimed the “largest ALP caucus in history since Federation”. It was, he said, brimming with “capacity, talent and energy in both the House of Representatives and the Senate”.

Albanese’s success at the May 3 election has given him unparalleled authority over the government and the party. It’s an authority he is prepared to wield with ruthlessness, using his intimate knowledge of the party and its structures. As one seasoned player remarked after the controversial dumping from cabinet of minister for industry Ed Husic and attorney-general Mark Dreyfus: “This would not have happened if Albanese had not wanted it.”

Giving weight to this view is the way Albanese curtly answered journalists’ questions about the sackings. He described them as part of the caucus process and left it at that. There was no gracious thanking of both ministers for their contribution or sympathy for their hurt feelings.

That was left to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who defended Husic’s right to speak out. He regretted that it had been “a messy week”. Why the prime minister could not have shown similar graciousness has some people in the party bewildered, though not some who have crossed swords with him over the years.

Husic’s outspokenness in cabinet, especially over the government’s handling of the Gaza tragedy, is known to have irked Albanese. This was alluded to by Husic in his controversial interview on Insiders last weekend. That’s where he also described the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, as a “factional assassin”.

The fact is the landslide election altered the balance between the Left and Right factions in caucus. The Right was set to lose one ministerial slot, and sentiment has little value in politics, a lesson Albanese had learnt over the years as a factional player himself. It also provided an opportunity for some “housekeeping”.

Even so, some in the New South Wales Right are concerned the early move on Husic, who is a Muslim, will play badly among Western Sydney’s increasingly outspoken Islamic communities.

The dumping of Mark Dreyfus was just as untidy, but there is speculation in the party that it had more to do with plans Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke have for national security.

Home Affairs is to be returned to the form it took under the Coalition, which saw Peter Dutton as one of the most powerful ministers in the Turnbull and Morrison governments, in charge of the Australian Federal Police and security agencies, as well as customs and immigration.

Dreyfus had successfully argued that responsibility for the AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation should more properly be returned to the attorney-general, something his Liberal predecessor, George Brandis, had also wanted but didn’t get.

Albanese has now gone further than the Liberals in giving Burke charge of the entire security apparatus, leaving the Attorney-General’s Department severely downgraded. This is a rebuff that would have embarrassed Dreyfus, but he was never given a right of reply, nor the chance, as was afforded Bill Shorten, to retire gracefully.

The prime minister cited the Dural caravan hoax as a reason for the restructure of security architecture. He said he wanted to make sure federal ministers can have access to “all the information at the appropriate time”. The opposition had launched a sustained parliamentary attack on Albanese for being left in the dark over the hoax.

The boost to Home Affairs signals Albanese is intent on not only neutralising national security as a political issue but also in wresting from the Liberals their reputation as the default champions in that area.

Minister Burke rejects any suggestions he and Albanese want to outdo the Liberals in leveraging fear as a political weapon. He told The Saturday Paper, “Labor sees national security not about making people afraid but simply making people safe.”

Chalmers said that, despite the unedifying factional ructions, he wanted to assure people “the overwhelming focus of the government is on the economic challenges before us at a time of extreme global economic uncertainty”. It’s a message the voters at the election clearly wanted to hear.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics wages data was seized on by the treasurer as proof the government is keeping faith with the electorate. Chalmers said the 1 per cent growth in real wages through the year to the March quarter was “the strongest rate of annual real wage growth in five years”.

Midweek the Australian Electoral Commission count of voting gave Labor a 50-seat ascendancy over the Coalition, a mountain that will almost certainly take more than one election for the Liberals to climb.

The class of 2025 saw Labor welcome 23 new faces into its caucus, members who will particularly credit Albanese with their success and give him a security buffer.

This election is proof Labor has emerged from the sort of leadership rivalries that have bedevilled both major parties in the past two decades. It is the Liberals who may well be re-entering this political quicksand.

Sussan Ley made history of her own when she became the first woman to lead the party in its 81 years. The 29-25 result over Angus Taylor is hardly a convincing win, however. It is made all the more tenuous when you take out the two or three senators whose term expires at the end of next month.

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Taylor and his running mate, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, have shelved their ambitions for now. Both have pledged loyalty and a commitment to rebuilding and strengthening the Liberal Party.

Price’s chutzpah in nominating to be deputy leader of a party she had just joined after deserting the Nationals, and with no runs on the board other than spearheading the “No” campaign in the Voice referendum, was truly remarkable.

The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party senator is an exemplar for conservatives, some of whom feed the fantasy that Price could one day be prime minister. This ambition is harboured by a person who failed when she ran for a lower house seat in 2019 and who saw her below-the-line Senate vote fall this election.

Powerful conservatives such as billionaire Gina Rinehart and former prime minister Tony Abbott are firmly in Price’s corner and see Ley’s claim to be a moderate Liberal prepared to listen to contemporary Australia as no prescription for success.

Ley gave no indication what role she would allocate Price on the front bench, except to say her shadow cabinet would include people who did not vote for her.

Ley says she is up for the job and cited her life history as a hard-working person who is undeterred by adversity. She injected a note of realism into her opening spiel at her first new conference as leader. She said on May 3 the Coalition faced “a significant defeat”.

Ley said “the scale and the size of that defeat is not lost on any of us”. The party had to “respect the result and reflect with humility”.

Her newly installed deputy, Ted O’Brien, didn’t quite get the message. He was still talking about saving the country from “the worst Labor government”. While agreeing with Ley that all policies were up for review, he made no admissions that his nuclear vision played a part in the Coalition’s loss.

The nuclear policy could well be a stumbling block for any renewed coalition with the Nationals. Both parties are split on the issue and the re-elected Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has no guarantee he can hold his party to it or the target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Ley talks of having a Liberal Party that “respects modern Australia, that reflects modern Australia and that represents modern Australia” and she says, “we have to meet people where they are”.

How that all translates into policies that win back women and younger Australians remains a work not yet in progress. It could well depend on how patient Taylor and Price will be before they strike with different solutions.

Ley has one definite thing going for her: she is not Peter Dutton. The latest Essential poll found Dutton faced voters with a net approval of minus 30.

This finding was backed by one Liberal candidate in a marginal seat. They say they lost after encountering staggering antipathy towards the leader in their doorknocking. A typical reaction was, “We don’t mind you but can’t vote for you while Dutton is leader.”

A Labor campaign strategy document produced for Dutton’s seat of Dickson, seen by The Saturday Paper, listed his negatives in the electorate, with No. 1 being he was not liked. It also noted “he lacks volunteers but can pay workers”.

Unshackled by his thumping election victory, Albanese jumped on board the prime ministerial jet for his first overseas trip this term, taking in Indonesia and then Rome to attend the papal inauguration this weekend.

In Rome he will take advantage of the opportunity to meet other world leaders, particularly Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney. He will also have a view to advancing a free trade deal with the European Commission through its president, Ursula von der Leyen.

At the end of his ministerial unveiling, Albanese said his mother would be “pretty chuffed at the idea that her son will be going as prime minister to see the inauguration of a pope in the Vatican City”.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on May 16, 2025 as "The spoils of war".

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