As I’ve written elsewhere, Scott Morrison’s campaign slogan for the upcoming election seems to be, “Hey, at least I’m not Anthony Albanese!” To which, long-suffering Coalition voters might feel entitled to respond, “Are you sure about that?”
Well, to give what little credit Morrison might be due, it’s pretty hard to make an objective assessment when Albanese’s own campaign strategy is to play the invisible man. Albanese almost never says anything. At best, he occasionally snipes at the PM, without ever saying what or how he’d do better.
There’s “small target”, and then there’s “microdot”.
What, after all, does Anthony Albanese stand for? To get an idea of where the opposition leader really stands, we have to reach back decades to before the pragmatism cat got his tongue.
Anthony Albanese sharply criticised capitalism and family wealth as causes of social injustice while suggesting incomes above $100,000 a year were not entirely deserved.
The Opposition Leader made the previously unreported remarks while arguing for an inheritance tax when he was assistant general secretary of NSW Labor in the early 1990s.
Lest we dismiss this as mere youthful exuberance, bear in mind that by this time, Albanese was in his 30s and already elected to a senior position in the snake pit of NSW Labor. As a student, of course, Albanese was aligned with Labor’s Hard Left faction, itself linked with the Communist Party of Australia. To this day, he remains a member of Labor’s Socialist Left faction, along with the likes of “Dictator Dan” Andrews, the China-aligned Victorian premier.
Mr Albanese has since moved away from his radical left heritage, positioning himself as a centrist politician and safe pair of economic hands ahead of the upcoming federal election.
That’s what Kevin Rudd said, too, in the lead-up to the 2007 election. How’d that work out? Well, among other things, Australia went from a surplus of over $17 billion and net assets of $29 billion, to a $19 billion deficit and net debt of $153 billion in just six, woeful years.
But that was 30 years ago — what about the Anthony Albanese of today? Albanese still lauds socialist ideals and has never held a Treasury portfolio, in government or opposition. At most, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard let him play with the train sets, as Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.
“He has spent his whole career being a cheerleader for higher taxes,” [Treasurer Josh Frydenberg] said.
“The carbon tax, the mining tax, congestion tax, retirees tax, housing tax, family business tax, higher taxes on income and superannuation and, most damning of all, death duties.”
Tellingly, Albanese has sidestepped renouncing his previous call for inheritance taxes.
Even more tellingly, he has previously also denounced the last economically responsible Labor government.
Criticising the Hawke government, he said the profits of the Prices and Incomes Accord (an agreement between the ACTU and the Labor Party) “have been wasted and squandered in an orgy of speculation and unproductive investment”.
The Australian
Australians are entitled to know what an opposition leader and aspiring prime minister really stand for. If he refuses to say and keeps hiding behind a “small target” strategy, Australians will simply have to judge him on his past record.