DAN JERVIS BARDY: Why Anthony Albanese can’t keep shying away from difficult fights

There’s an old Irish tale that Federal Education Minister Jason Clare is fond of retelling.

It’s the one about the man who, upon arriving at the gates of heaven, is asked by St Peter to show his scars.

“But I don’t have any scars,” the man says, to which St Peter replies: “What a pity, was there nothing worth fighting for?”

Mr Clare recounted the parable multiple times during the Voice to Parliament referendum to explain why Labor was pressing ahead with a vote despite the hurt the campaign unleashed.

Indigenous recognition, he said, was worth fighting for.

What’s become clear in the 11 months since the referendum is the deep scars of that defeat have left Labor afraid even of a scratch.

The decision — seemingly now reversed — not to include questions about sexuality in the next census was just the latest example of a Federal Government prepared to jettison commitments out of fear of a bruising fight with the Coalition.

It has effectively parked promised anti-religious discrimination laws for the same reasons.

Publicly, Labor says it is doing so to avoid igniting divisive public debates.

Privately, it concedes it is desperate to avoid being seen as distracted from addressing cost-of-living pressures, as it was during the Voice to Parliament campaign.

But in constantly shying away from fights, Labor is creating new and arguably more damaging problems for itself.

First, as was the case in the census debacle, it turns routine matters into controversies that anger the very sections of the community it claims it is trying to protect.

Secondly, it creates the image of a Government that doesn’t believe there is anything worth fighting for.