CAMERON MILNER: Lessons from Peter Beattie and why Anthony Albanese should go to the polls as soon as possible

Australians have now been subjected to the first full week of the Federal election campaign, but with so many still on leave or “working from home”, has anyone actually noticed?

Albanese has done a tour across three States while voters caught up with family, friends or simply drove to the beach for the day.

Dutton is also out with a faux campaign of hard lines and Vaseline lens-softened podcasts on his upbringing.

Between the aftermath of the Sydney test, that was itself so watchable after one of the best Boxing Day tests in living memory and a BBL series that still has the kids asking for the TV to be turned on rather than more time on the iPads, do Aussie families really want to break their break to come back to the reality of domestic politics?

Australians notoriously reset over the Christmas break. Pollsters see a measurable mellowing of attitudes fuelled by sun, sand, sex and too much seafood.We’re convinced the coming year will always be better than the one we just consigned to the archive.

There’s a great political line of president Ronald Reagan that: “America’s best days are yet to come, our proudest moments are yet to be”. It sums how Labor strategists hope they can frame the new year and the impending Federal election campaign.

Elections are sometimes about building on your record. But even Reagan, at the peak of his popularity, sold a yet-to-be-realised future over a popular past.

As much as Anthony Albanese’s Government would have you believe elections are about “building the future” they are much about timing as they are the message.

And even vastly more popular politicians than Albanese use timing to their advantage.

Peter Beattie was genuinely popular. He had a rock star’s ability to meet and greet and laugh along with the crowd, but even his polling numbers would dip mid-term under the weight of governing.

I recall one strategy meeting when the then Queensland premier asked the oracle, pollster John Utting, why his numbers had tumbled from their previous stratospheric highs.

“Well Pete, it’s like this: you start with everyone liking you and from there on it’s just managed decline,” was Utting’s response.

We learnt though that at least with Beattie, we could get a reset.

Our first lesson was to allow others to run their attack lines so he could stay Positive Peter. We then marketed the Labor Party as a non-denominational “Team Beattie”, giving partisan voters permission to break the ticket and vote for the “Team”.

Admittedly, Federal Labor won’t be able to campaign on Team Albo.

But most importantly, Beattie called the 2001 election for February 17. Then he backed the campaign up even harder into the Christmas holidays the next time, calling a February 7 election in 2004.

Both campaigns started as people were still largely on holidays.

The results were the two largest landslide victories for the party ever, delivering vastly more seats than even the 1989 campaign that ended 32 years of political wilderness for Queensland Labor.

For some, it defied traditional campaign logic which says you want voters to be focused on the choice. That logic says you bring down a budget and then seek a re-election.

A Federal election is required to be no less than 33 days in length. And if you think a week is a long time in politics, almost five weeks is an eternity.

You can go for longer like Hawke did in 1984 and almost lost the election.

A more recent example is that of Malcolm Turnbull. He proved with his interminable eight-week campaign in 2016 that came within a seat of losing government after just one term, that it’s best not to give voters too much time to pass judgment on you.

So Albanese, after a week on the hustings and telling voters he’s been on the job even as the rest of us took a well earned break, will be taking a hard look at the Beattie effect and not coming back for a March Budget and a so predictable May election.

Albanese may have weighed into the debate about Cool Cabanas on our beaches, but the reality is he’d rather voters complained about their sunburn than the performance — or lack thereof — of his show on the cost of living.

Labor would rather the kids on the beach build dribble castles of sand than listen to the very same from the terminally unpopular Albo.

The stupor of summer suits Labor to perfection.

The Cocacabana retirement villa, Qantas upgrades and Nathan’s Chairman’s club membership are all so last year.

The loss of the Albanese Voice is a distant memory now two Christmases old.

For Labor — with every recent poll screaming minority government at best and flirting with a Scullin-esque total loss after just one term in government at worst — this summer break couldn’t have come soon enough.

Labor members are hoping against hope that Albanese, for the first time since his election as Prime Minister, has the courage to make the right decision. Now.

Before the tan lines fade and it’s clear no interest rate relief is coming.

Before voters remember what they complained of to pollsters all through last year: that Albanese’s leadership is “weak and hopeless”.

Albanese should go to the polls as soon as possible.

Instead of standing on tradition, he should take a novel approach and call the election while you can still get Australia Day gear at Woolworths.

An election called in the shade of a Cool Cabana, with the beers on ice and burgers and bangers on the BBQ.

Not a referendum on the Albanese Government’s first term, which was sacrificed on the PM’s Yes campaign vanity project while Australians suffered through a cost-of-living crisis.

But an election that promises that our nation’s best days are ahead of it still.