CAMERON MILNER: Time for Anthony Albanese to put Labor first and go before it’s too late

Albanese shouldn’t do a Biden and wait too long to hand the Labor leadership over before the next Federal election. Labor’s only chance now is with anyone but Albo, as soon as possible.

Harris only had 107 days to try to close the gap with Trump. It simply wasn’t long enough.

Biden’s hubris and Harris not being the president helped deliver a Trump victory.

The next Federal election in Australia is due in May, so the sooner Labor concludes that Albanese, like Biden, is well past his use-by date and suffering diminished political and cognitive abilities the better.

To date, Labor’s caucus has been too squeamish to dump the rules left in place by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, designed to stop Labor’s leadership merry-go-round. Albanese thinks the fact his colleagues haven’t yet blasted out is a sign he has their tacit endorsement. It’s not.

Labor members have been talking for months behind his back as leadership alternatives ramp up their media opportunities and line up feature stories on themselves in the weekend papers.

This was occurring well before Albo bought the clifftop retirement home or took a full week to check it was only his personal staff and not himself who had arranged his Qantas upgrades.

Long-suffering Labor ministers could’ve been talking about the cost of living, but instead were wheeled out to defend out-of-touch Albo one week and then Upgrade Albo the next.

Biden’s equivalents were his defence of his son, Hunter Biden, with the gun, the laptop and the interstate hookers, all while he froze up on debate stages.

Labor MPs rightly ask how cognitively impaired was Albanese to simply not say no to Copacabana and no to business class upgrades while in public office.

In the midst of a personal crisis entirely of his own making, Albanese gave another lacklustre speech celebrating the status quo to corporate donors in Melbourne over alternate drops of rubber chicken and Mekong River carp.

As voters are crying out for change in this cost-of-living crisis, Albo’s promising more of the same.

As donors who had paid $1500 a ticket were looking at their watches and scrolling the Sportsbet odds on the next Labor leader, Albanese said he wanted to emulate John Howard.

To the silent groan of thinking he meant being around for four terms, Albanese, ever the underestimated, decided to underwhelm as usual.

Albanese said he would be the only leader in the past 20 years who saw out a term as leader and went to two elections in a row. That was apparently the secret to stability. Corporates by this stage were contemplating asking for refunds or paying double for an early release from the room.

Of all the great ambitions that great leaders of Australia have held, Albo wanted to match Howard’s first term achievement — not of reforms, gun control after Port Arthur or nation-building — but a time-served metric.

It’s extraordinary that this Leftie warrior, acolyte of Tom Uren and Jeremy Corbyn, who has been in Federal Parliament longer than the maximum prison term for murdering a police officer, that his life’s work comes down to matching just two of the many records John Howard broke.

Labor famously won a campaign with the slogan “It’s Time”, but it was about getting things done, not just hanging around.

The Harris experience tells us that new leaders need time and the imprimatur of office to have the best chance of winning. Labor in Australia faces the very same challenge.

If the caucus won’t change the rules, then the only chance left is for Albanese to be prevailed upon to do the right thing by Labor and resign now.

The party is always more important than any one individual. Albo, mate, it’s not about you. Never has been, never will be.

Albanese was allowed to run a small target campaign that barely delivered a majority. He was overindulged with his vanity project, the Albanese Voice and it tanked, badly. He’s had every chance to shine. Instead, all polls show he’s worse now than before the last election, even up against Dutton.

Albanese has been given an unfettered freedom to shape Labor and this Government. But voters aren’t buying it and when asked, say they see Albo as “weak, useless and incompetent”, according to the results of a JL Partners poll.

As Kelly Clarkson — an artist no doubt on high rotation on Albo’s Spotify alongside Katy Perry and Tay Tay — once sang: “You had your chance, you blew it”.

Stepping down now would show everyone he was putting the party and voters’ interests first.

Labor is blessed with a frontbench stacked with talent. Polling and Sportsbet both have Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek well-established as front runners.

My view is that it should be Chalmers. But I recognise the blinding ambition of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and the new dark horse, Health Minister Mark Butler.

Burke needs to secure his seat of Watson though before securing the leadership. That may well require him to ditch his roots. The “raised a Catholic” boy needs to channel an SBS newsreader and be the voice for Muslim minorities first.

Butler’s increased profile hasn’t gone unnoticed by seasoned Canberra watchers. His definitive defence of Israel was notable, along with his many achievements in the complex health portfolio.

Butler is close to Penny Wong and likewise shares a strong bond with Jay Weatherill, the former South Australian premier. Butler also hails from the largest Left union, the United Workers Union.

On Sunday he belled the cat when he said: “Voters want to see governments focused overwhelmingly on the cost of living”.

Not social media bans, nor Qantas upgrades or clifftop mansions.

Voters are so ready to flush Labor, yet Albo is undeterred and keeps coming back with anything else but a response on their number one issue — the cost of living.

Albanese needs to learn from Biden and go before Labor rolls out its big new re-election agenda.

If Albanese refuses to do the decent thing and resign then we’ll all know this was never about Labor. It was only ever about Albo and what he could get his hands on for as long as he could.

It’s time Albo put the Labor Party’s interests ahead of his own self-interest.

Albanese has floated to the top by default and been found badly wanting.

He has one last chance to be remembered with some dignity.

Labor with anyone but Albo leading is the strongest possible Labor to take on the Trump-like Dutton and the Republican-like Liberals. Albanese must sacrifice himself for the greater good.