EDITORIAL: Albanese has hit the wall but Taylor is nowhere
The breakdown in Coalition discipline was symptomatic of an Opposition that is going nowhere.
Anthony Albanese has had a shocker.
He should be gone for all money. And yet the Coalition has disappeared from the main game as Liberal leader Angus Taylor struggles to cut through.
And so the defacto Opposition now is the untested, untried, unorthodox One Nation.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Mr Albanese’s slide can be traced back to his stubborn refusal to call a royal commission into the Bondi tragedy until the chorus of voices calling for it became too loud to ignore.
The Prime Minister has also suffered some damage from the return of so-called ISIS brides to Australia.
Home buyers are battling the impact of three interest rate rises this year, which the Reserve Bank has in part linked to inflation-boosting government spending.
Mr Albanese and his sidekick, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, broke a promise not to change the negative gearing and capital gains tax settings when they handed down the Federal Budget.
House prices are heading downwards, which is bad news for those who took out a mortgage recently.
They may end up sliding into negative equity — where they owe the bank more than their home is worth.
And now we have Melongate, in which an innuendo-laden podcast the Prime Minister foolishly agreed to take part in has ended up as an international incident amid debate about references to melons and the Japanese female Prime Minister.
Labor’s polling numbers have reflected this list.
In the most recent Newspoll, the Government’s primary vote fell to 29 per cent, down from 33 per cent in June.
One Nation was level with Labor.
And the Coalition? Just 18 per cent.
The Opposition had briefly appeared to be on the upswing when Mr Taylor tapped into the two hot button issues — immigration and housing.
In his reply to the Budget in May, Mr Taylor announced mass migration would come to an end and a government he led would cap immigration based on the numbers of homes built each year.
In addition, income tax would be indexed to inflation, welfare payments restricted to Australian citizens and net zero carbon policies dumped.
After that? Well not a lot. Mr Taylor has disappeared in a blitz of beige.
And just this week he suffered the spectacle of Andrew Bragg, the Opposition’s shadow minister for housing, giving a National Press Club speech, where he advocated policies on tax and immigration that had not yet been approved by his shadow cabinet colleagues.
His burst of “freelancing” was in contrast to the discipline shown by the Labor frontbench which lined up to back Mr Albanese as he came under heavy fire over Melongate.
Of course party discipline is not everything. But the episode was symptomatic of an Opposition that is going nowhere.
It is no wonder One Nation has surged.
Australians are sick of spin and evasion from Labor. They want to hear some unvarnished straight-talking. They are getting it from Pauline Hanson.
Mr Taylor needs to find his mojo. And fast.
