THE FRONT DORE: Maybe we are misjudging the Anthony Albanese era

A lot of people, the Prime Minister, his chief of staff and advisers, his party mates and factional allies, and some of his pals in the media, feel this column is too harsh on Anthony Albanese. (“You called him wanker!”)

Almost a third of Australian voters back the PM, suggesting that some people believe he’s doing a great job and maybe, just maybe, the critics, and the other two-thirds, have been getting it all wrong.

What if we were to look at the Albanese Government through the eyes of the stans, his super fans, who see the past 31 months as a triumph where the rest can only see doom. All Australians see the same politicians; hear and read the same words. Yet no one can agree on what any of it really means. Anthony Albanese says tomato, Peter Dutton says tomato. Haters say shit sandwich.

Same words, same lines, same actors, different plot, and entirely different ending. One happy and one sad. One a comedy. The other a mockumentary. But what if one mob was actually right, and the other lot was getting it all mixed up.

How would politics look if everyone saw the world as Albanese and his supporters see it?

One way of living this experiment is to simply watch the ABC news and listen to Radio National.

The other way is to read on . . .

GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARDS

On Sunday, Albanese struck a deal with Indonesia, our most significant neighbour, to convince them, as the ABC said in a “diplomatic coup”, to hand over for release into the community, finally, Australia’s most notorious heroin traffickers. The Bali Nine, minus three dead, and one other, are now back home, free to roam. At last!

True, this wasn’t an election promise, nor was anyone aware that anyone was asking for this to happen, but evidently someone in DFAT, somewhere, must have thought it was a good idea. And thank God Albo agreed, and persuaded the brand new Indonesian President to get on board. It’s not immediately clear how and why their release suddenly became a priority of our Prime Minister. He leaned in too. He got the drug mules, heroin is so passe, out of jail, and the PM wants to look after them now too, issuing a plea: “we ask that the media respect the privacy of the men and their families at this time.” Please give them space to party. It’s been a while.

But, for sure, fair-minded Australians will applaud such a brave commitment to human rights. Aussies should come home to serve out their life sentences for serious crimes committed abroad. Even if that means they have to be set free unencumbered to do so. We have no qualms letting foreign criminals out into the community, so why should Australians be any different?

Albanese’s diplomatic ascendancy is evident when one considers the two ringleaders of the international heroin racket were summarily executed, shot dead, on Tony Abbott’s watch. Tick Albo.

Albanese has admirable form in getting one-time cretins out of jail and back into our suburbs where they belong. Successive prime ministers failed to get Julian Assange out of the reach of the unreasonable Americans determined to wrongly punish him for rightly exposing war crimes. Albo got it done. Welcome home Julian.

A genuine triumph of Albanese Government diplomacy was convincing China to release news anchor Cheng Lei, who was outrageously locked up. This no one can quibble with, and the PM deserves all the credit.

OLD CHINA MATES AND THE TERRIFIC PACIFIC

Under Albanese, China is no longer angry at Australia. We are back in the good books, trading up a storm again, as if Scott Morrison and COVID and the nasty wolf warriors never happened. Beijing even says Albanese is leading the world in breaking away from “Washington’s anti-China spell”. Tick Tok Albo.

The Pacific nations love us again, now that we are taking climate change seriously, and giving them loads of well-deserved cash to fix it, given we play a big part in causing it.

We have even struck a treaty with Nauru. It’s only $100 million but worth every cent. No one knows how it will all work, because neither the President of Nauru nor Albanese took a question on it when it was announced.

Transparency is not always the best diplomacy, they say. Tick.

And we are giving PNG a football team in the National Rugby League competition. Who is going to complain about that, it’s exciting to see North Queensland with another team, if it keeps our good friends China happy to stay out of our Pacific.

Foreign policy has been re-cast in other ways too.

PEACE BE WITH THE MIDDLE EAST

We have finally officially recognised the Palestinians, and set them on their path to statehood. We have denounced Hamas, so that’s good, and we and other like-minded UN members are convinced Fatah will change its brutal undemocratic ways now after they’ve witnessed how unsuccessful committing the horrors of October 7 have been in winning over western governments to fight for their cause.

The world, Australia as a key middle power, has reprimanded Israel for its bloody destruction of its Islamist enemies and it will surely learn its lesson — wiping out the threat of your neighbours simply because they hate you and want to destroy you and every other Jew in the world is not a good enough reason to occupy Palestine and the West Bank.

Being shelled by Hezbollah and harassed by Iran is no excuse to fire back.

Children might be killed if you fire back. Israel is much better at protecting its children so it shouldn’t retaliate.

This is not complicated.

Further, despite it being an ancient problem, around forever as Albo says, it only took barely a year for the PM to see that anti-Semitism is just as big a problem in Australian suburbs as Islamophobia.

Because of Israel’s outrageous behaviour, anti-Semitism is serious in Australia now.

Israel have really caused a lot of problems for everyone since October 7. Why they don’t just stop fighting and give the Palestinians statehood is a mystery. That would solve everything. What is it about Israel? Unreasonable.

But Muslim hatred is really bad in Australia, always has been, particularly in marginal seats. But Albanese has set that straight, taking significant steps forward for Australians of Muslim faith, Christians and Jewish people to live harmoniously, idyllically, side by side, setting the example for peace in the Middle East. Social cohesion. Fixed.

Lots of wild and frantic histrionic stuff has been said about the election of Donald Trump and the ramifications for Kevin Rudd, our US Ambassador and once outspoken critic of the incoming president. But Albanese has shushed it all down. No one is talking about Rudd and Trump anymore. Why was everyone so sure this would be a problem. Rudd is doing a great job. And he’s an expert on China. He’s the best man to have in Washington for sure. The Americans might even ask his advice on how to deal with China. Makes sense.

THE VOICE OF REASON

While so many have smashed Albanese for the failure of the Voice referendum. Let’s be fair dinkum. He said he would put it to the vote. And he did. What more could anyone expect of him. He’s not Dutton. He didn’t urge people to vote against it. How can people blame Albanese for Australians voting against it. He voted for it. What more can he do. Dutton is the problem here. Creep.

And regardless, Albanese has taken up other important unifying symbols to advance Aboriginal well being. He will not stand in front of the Australian national flag without having the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag right beside it. The state-owned ABC now calls, during its news bulletins, and during calls at the footy, all of our cities by their Indigenous names. Closing the gap.

GREENS WITH ENVY

Albanese has managed to forge a close working relationship with the Greens, personally negotiating significant and complex legislative measures with the party’s leadership last month.

This is a great sign for the future. Hung Parliament. Who cares.

Albanese is a master negotiator. He’s done this before successfully in the Gillard-Greens era.

This could be game-changing for Australia. A PM who gets it, and can talk to the crossbenchers, the Greens, the teals, like adults. Getting real policy change done. It worked in New Zealand under Lady Ardern. It Can work under Comrade Albo.

But Albanese has also proven deft at not being too radical like his old left-wing buddy Tanya Plibersek.

While Albanese has abandoned the wild politics of his youth, he’s still got a big heart, but he’s practical. Centrist. He has, sadly, for the good of the country, been forced by pragmatism to torpedo Tanya’s heroic but ambitious environment policies. She has lost it a bit too, and it’s fair enough that Albanese should reassure people she will have to go from the portfolio when he wins the election. No point scaring the horses.

And anyway he’s saving the salmon (farms) of Tassie, and the sheep (slaughtering) in WA.

TOGETHER IN ELECTRIC DREAMS

Albanese is also solving the climate crisis.

No one calls it a crisis any more for starters. And the PM is gas-mad so baseline power is good to go. But only until we can get cracking on green hydrogen. Green energy projects are getting billions in subsidies and other funding. Australia as the world’s renewable energy super power is well and truly happening. This is the dream come true. By 2035 or 2050, whichever comes first.

All that talk about skyrocketing household power bills. Well he’s sorted that out too.

Hundreds of dollars of rebates are wiping the froth off those soaring electricity bills. Cost-of-living pressure. Eased.

IT’S THE STUPID ECONOMY

There is more to be done on the economy. But who can complain about Jim Chalmers delivering two budget surpluses while still spending more taxpayer money than any government before?

That takes skill and it’s working. While we are in a lengthy household recession, the nation as a whole has avoided falling into what is all technical clap trap anyway.

Inflation is coming down. That’s a fact.

And interest rates will also come down eventually. Also a fact.

Unemployment is ridiculously low, even as we are welcoming in hundreds of thousands of migrants.

They didn’t tell us they were coming, but it must be working. Everyone has a job. And wages are higher than before.

Sure, housing is hard to come by. But when has it ever been easy buying a house or finding a rental?

If it were simple, we would have all bought a place once we landed our first job, and not had to put up with share houses throughout our twenties and thirties.

The Treasurer, whoever it will be, faces a return to multi-billion dollar deficits starting next year. But at least we had 2023 and 2024 right. What did Morrison and Frydenberg deliver? A decade of debt and deficits.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

With union membership in historic decline, as workers in the private sector choose to quit the collective, the Albanese Government has come to the rescue, reviving the union movement and curbing the power of big business. Albanese has saved Qantas (from Qatar) and the supermarkets (from being split up) by making them treat their customers better. It’s working. Kowtowed by Albo.

On the other hand, he’s doing the right thing for the future by giving a lot of government money to some smart businesses to be smarter.

But best of all he’s empowering the worker. With the help of Albanese and his successor Tony Burke, staff can now turn off and drop out on the weekends and after hours.

Never before has it been more fashionable to be disconnected.

Albanese has also taken on computers, outlawing kids from talking to each other online and telling them to go outside and play. Like he used to in the 1970s. How good.

PM Kevin Rudd wanted every student to have a laptop, Albanese should give every kid a skateboard.

Good luck Peter Dutton beating that list of achievements.

Why then is everyone being so unkind? Why are so many in the Labor Party so worried? Doesn’t make sense.

We’ve never had it so good.