ANDREW GREENE: Why there won’t be major celebrations when Albanese overtakes Keating’s time in office

Anthony Albanese will make history later this week by overtaking Labor hero Paul Keating’s four years and 82 days in office, to become Australia’s 11th longest serving Prime Minister.

After winning two consecutive elections, and being on track to clinch a third term, Albanese could be forgiven for thinking he’s about to enter the pantheon of Labor greats, but even inside his government a sense of grumpiness and frustration is growing.

Support for Labor among voters is now at the lowest point in more than a decade, dropping to a level last seen in the dying days of Julia Gillard’s prime ministership.

According to Monday’s Newspoll, the Government’s primary vote dropped to 29 per cent, down from 33 per cent in June.

One Nation also slipped one point but remains level with Labor on 29 per cent, while the Coalition fell to 18 per cent.

“Well, it’s certainly a change, and we’ve got a bit of time between now and the next election to right that,” Labor’s Tanya Plibersek acknowledged on Seven’s Sunrise on Monday.

As he welcomed Labor MPs back to Canberra ahead of Parliament’s resumption on Tuesday after the winter break, the Prime Minister declared to his caucus that: “we continue to advance our positive agenda as we go forward”.

“The legislation that we will be having in this second half of the year will set us up to go into 2027, even stronger as we go forward,” Albanese told his colleagues.

“Not talking Australia down, but building Australia up, which is what we do, whether it’s here domestically or indeed internationally as well.”

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, his recent distasteful comments during a now notorious podcast appearance continue to generate negative sentiment internationally.

One day after Parliament rose on July 2 for an almost six-week mid-year break, Anthony Albanese’s interview with comedian Nikki Osborne went online and caused an immediate backlash.

After sparking widespread outrage for telling the podcast he would “shag” Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue if his recent marriage with Jodie Haydon went “tits up”, the PM offered an “unequivocal” apology.

The Prime Minister however continues to resist calls to apologise to his Japanese counterpart following a fresh wave of criticism for the jokes he made about the female leader’s melons, a reference to an official gift she brought to Australia earlier this year.

His team may have hoped the controversy had long disappeared, but now Japan’s former ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, and Tomohiko Taniguchi, a one-time adviser to former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, have both attacked Albanese’s comments.

“(The) PM appeared on a satirical podcast. The podcaster made some comments, and there are people trying to blow that up,” Labor cabinet Minister Catherine King said on Monday as she sought to downplay the controversy.

“I haven’t seen the podcast, but it’s a satirical podcast. The podcaster made some comments,” the senior female Labor figure and close Albanese ally insisted.

Pressed on whether the Prime Minister should have played along with the podcast host’s jokes, Ms King again defended her leader.

“It’s a satirical podcast. I’ve got not a great deal of interest in it, to be quite honest. It’s a satirical podcast. Podcaster made some comments. Really, I think we should just move on.”

It’s worth also noting the Prime Minister has not held a press conference in Canberra since late June, before the Deep Bush podcast controversy erupted, so he is likely to again face questions on it when he next fronts Parliament’s press gallery.

In the meantime, the PM is instead keen to focus on the legislative agenda for the fortnight ahead, including an overhaul of the NDIS that is likely to soon pass, as well as changes to gambling laws that continue to be negotiated with the Coalition and Greens.

During Monday’s caucus meeting Labor MPs did not ask about the Government’s soon-to-be-announced migration overhaul, which had been expected to be unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke last week at a National Press Club address.

Minister Burke’s delicate balancing act on trying to bring down Australia’s Net Overall Migration level is expected to finally be released in the next fortnight, but Government figures insist the package must be watertight first.

Once Anthony Albanese eclipses Paul Keating’s tenure in office later this week, he’ll need another 11 weeks to overtake another Labor luminary, Ben Chifley, on the prime ministerial leaderboard.

If he can keep his job until March next year, Albanese will also surpass Andrew Fisher to become the second-longest serving Labor Prime Minister after Bob Hawke.

Right now, the PM’s internal party critics think he has a long way to go until he can be compared to the reforming legacy left by the Hawke and Keating governments.

Putting an end to crass appearances on supposedly comedic podcasts would be a good start.