EDITORIAL: Anthony Albanese wants to talk about everything but what is actually important

“It is always great to be here in this wonderful electorate here in Wallan today, on a fantastic day.”

A fantastic day.

Wallan is in Victoria. And on this fantastic day, Monday, Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister of Australia, stood before the media to talk about Peter Dutton’s work from home backflip.

Never mind Mr Albanese didn’t quite manage to tell the truth about Mr Dutton’s trashed policy, this media event was staged as Australian voters, mums and dads and business owners and retirees, went into a bit of a blind panic as the world plunged into a financial crisis, with $100 billion wiped off the value of Australian companies alone. In a day.

A fantastic day, according to Anthony Albanese.

Why? Because he had a little gimmick to whack Peter Dutton with. Not words of reassurance. A little trick to beat up his opponent.

Voters are disengaged from politics. And this is why.

Albanese is doing his absolute best during this campaign to get in his small little bubble and stay there. In fact, Mr Albanese has spent the best part of the past three years doing the same thing.

Writer at large Latika M Bourke recently wrote in The Nightly that confronted by major events, the Prime Minister did his best to pull the blankets over his head and wish the pain away.

Head meet sand.

Right now, as the world crumbles around us all, Anthony “Comical Ali” Albanese would prefer to go small. Very small.

The great shrinking Prime Minister and his uninspiring opponent.

Get in that bubble and stay there.

Our leaders are playing around in a sandpit during this election campaign while all hell breaks out in the playground around them.

Work from home lies and backflips. Ridiculous $5 tax cuts some time next year. Humiliating power bill rebates to mask the absurdity of Chris Bowen’s energy policies. Solar battery handouts for the well-off to help the runaway costs for the poor of turning on the lights and running household appliances.

Australians think Albanese is a dope and Dutton is a dud.

They are sick of the lies, hypocrisy and the hopelessness of politics.

Australians want to talk about what the Trump tariff fiasco means for their jobs, their savings, their future.

What does it all mean? Are we heading for a recession? Is everything going to be OK?

Bigger, more competent prime ministers would have temporarily brought a halt to the campaign silliness, the gotchas and the gags, to stand before the Australian people, at a podium, surrounded by the national flags, to tell us all your government has this under control. We have a plan.

Mr Albanese wants to talk about everything but what is actually important.

He wants to scheme his way back into the Lodge. Scare families and fool the uninformed. Politics has always been a game. But the modern political parties are no longer just playing amongst themselves, they are playing with our lives and livelihoods.