ANDREW CARSWELL: Anthony Albanese’s caution risks turning his leadership into a missed opportunity

Anthony Albanese could afford to take a few risks.

There is time and space to throw caution to the wind. To build something lasting. To shake off the cloak of cautious management and abandon the plodding incrementalism that has so far defined his leadership, and actually nation-build.

His political ascendancy is unchallenged; his authority near absolute. There is a mountain of political capital waiting to be spent in the pursuit of something meaningful. His opponents are utterly broken, divided and still picking at their own wounds. The field is clear.

Try something!

But he won’t.

Is there a danger that this commanding political position could be squandered in the pursuit of safety? That the security of power will trump the purpose of it? That we will look back on this looming Albo-dynasty with a collective sense of “meh”.

Despite the shrieks from the margins, Albanese has proven himself a capable and steady manager; a leader defined by consistency and a stubborn resistance to being knocked off course. Better than his hardened critics give him credit for. You don’t get a -1 approval rating after three and a half years in office if you’re the disaster his critics claim. (Cue the Boomerbook chorus: “Yeah, but who are they really polling?!”)

But still, a fair few achievements short of transformative. And a hell of a lot of reform short of remarkable.

Plodding his way to retaining power. One inoffensive week after the next.

But for what, beyond his steady rise up the ladder of longevity of Australia’s 31 prime ministers (he’s already 14th)?

Anthony Albanese has made it abundantly clear that big reforms are off the agenda, with his clear preference for stability over the risky pursuit of change.

Change isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people aren’t built for it, nor have the fortitude to push through walls. And is change even necessary, when your opposition have failed to make a case for it?

You would’ve thought a thumping election victory that gifted Labor 94 seats would have injected some fervent ambition into the Government.

It didn’t.

You would’ve thought the gathering of economists, business leaders and self-aggrandising theorists at its August economic roundtable would have spurred the Government to pursue an agenda of reform to boost productivity and growth.

It didn’t.

And yet even now, with the Coalition mired in a faux leadership brawl and factional chaos, you’d think the Government would have cover to pursue bold ideas — to do something, anything, to nudge the nation toward its vision of a better future.

It hasn’t.

Given that the further unravelling of a Coalition once thought already fully unravelled is set to dominate the parliamentary sitting period, the Government could effectively do whatever it liked, and still end the week somewhat triumphant. It could dig into its bag of ideological dreams and pull out a bold social policy.

It could put tax reform at the centre of its economic agenda.

It could take a serious run at housing affordability, productivity, or the skills crisis — something that would actually shift the needle.

Open up the shoulders and give it a crack.

But they won’t.

It is not in the nature of this Government to entertain anything that could be dressed up as risk. It is one step in front of the other. And then pause to make sure that step has been taken with the greatest of care.

Beyond its fervent, but failed, pursuit of a Voice to Parliament and its full copy and paste job from the union manifesto on industrial relations, there are few moments where the Albanese Government simultaneously showcased its values and put its proverbials on the chopping block.

The “achievements” mostly fall into the category of bans or bets.

A ban on social media for under-16s. A ban on live sheep exports. A ban on industrial emissions, on labour hire, on junk food ads, and increasingly, on the full spectrum of free speech itself.

And then, the bets. Bets on the creation of a million jobs (at Winx-like odds when the population and migration are both galloping). Bets on 1.2 million new homes (without the policy mechanism to make it happen). Bets on achieving ever more ambitious climate targets. Bets on a “Future Made in Australia” — where the biggest wager so far is a taxpayer-funded solar panel factory designed to compete with the Chinese manufacturing behemoth. A bet on peace in the Middle East.

It’s a Government of bans and bets. Of prohibitions and promises.

Some things are obviously admirable. Some things show an understanding of where the public is at. Some entirely pointless and counter-productive.

But that’s it.

Nothing you can itemise as reform.

And nothing in the future to suggest that will change either, with Albanese holding unswervingly to the notion that any big-ticket reform must be taken to an election. To get a proper mandate from the people.

So what are the next two and a half years for then?

Plod. Manage. Win.