Opinion
Seeing as he likes to prate about his love of Aussie bands, I’ll let the Cruel Sea do the talking to Anthony Albanese: The honeymoon is over, baby, it’s never gonna be that way again.
Whatever goodwill the PM might have been able to rely on after the election has long evaporated. Labor’s primary vote has shrunk back to its second-lowest-ever. Worse, no matter what he does, every news story about him has become a negative story. Even his once claim to some kind of popularity, being seen at “cool” concerts, has become a well of poison. Just as Jacinda Ardern’s once-guaranteed good-news stories about school visits became PR poison.
In just eighteen months, Albo has impressively reached the same stage as Ardern, when she couldn’t be seen in public without attracting, shall we say, negative commentary.
Albanese’s downward spiral is showing in the polls.
Labor’s primary vote has dropped to 33 per cent ahead of Saturday’s critical Dunkley by-election, with Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings remaining in negative territory despite the government retaining its lead over the Coalition on preferences.
Recall that, by now, any poll bounce from Labor’s backflip on Stage three tax cuts should have shown through. Instead, while voters were happy enough to get some of their money back from the taxman’s clutches, it hasn’t endeared the government to them at all.
The latest results show the government having failed to improve its position overall since December, with no apparent boost from last month’s tax cut announcement, which sought to redistribute income tax cuts for higher-income earners to lower and middle-income earners.
While the tax cuts were supported by a majority of Australians, the latest Newspoll shows they have failed to translate into an increase in support for Labor.
Not least because the bad news of Labor’s incompetence and weakness just keeps dominating the headlines.
The government has come under political pressure over the past two weeks following the forced release of documents showing that 149 immigration detainees had been released by the government since last year’s High Court decision, including convicted murderers and rapists.
Last week, the government was also forced to defend its border credentials following the arrival of an asylum-seeker boat on the Australian mainland.
With the cost of living remaining the primary concern of a majority of voters, the Coalition has sought to exploit Mr Albanese’s broken promise on tax cuts and highlight the disparity between the amount of money workers would receive in the restyled tax plan and what they had lost in disposable income over the past 18 months due to inflation.
The Australian
It will be interesting to see whether the PM campaigns in Dunkley, this week. The by-election is seen as a critical test for Labor. Anything less than a resounding win in this so far safest of Labor seats is unacceptable. But, if recent public appearances are anything to go by, Albanese has become very much a liability rather than a positive for the party.
Especially when everything he does is being seen through a Marie Antoinette-lens of being seen to be living it up on the taxpayer’s dollar while the country is going down the gurgler. First, there were the loud boos when Albanese’s name was mentioned at the Australian Open final, now online fury at whooping it up with the rich and famous.
Anthony Albanese has sparked outrage after attending a Taylor Swift concert and private Katy Perry show while Aussies struggle with a cost of living crisis.
A post on X showed the Prime Minister at Friday night’s Taylor Swift show in Sydney, dancing awkwardly in between his son Nathan and fiancee Jodie Haydon.
The post, headlined ‘Great Job! Albo is a Swiftie, and Australians are getting poorer’ was followed by a litany of abuse for Mr Albanese.
It didn’t help that “Airbus Albo” immediately flew from Sydney to Melbourne, to kiss up to the elite at a billionaire’s personal Katy Perry concert.
Though, that didn’t put him off flying to Melbourne on Saturday to attend a private concert by Katy Perry at billionaire Anthony Pratt‘s mansion.
The Prime Minister was among a crowd of around 200 of Australia’s business and political elites, with the notable absence of Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci, who pulled out after scrutiny of alleged price gouging.
The Daily Mail
While Albanese has the prime ministership, it seems, he’s determined to enjoy it. Which is not going down well with the peasants.
But it must be hard to hear the voices of the people from inside a billionaire’s mansion.