The two-word slogan Anthony Albanese credits for his election success - as he hits back at critics who suggest he owes his landslide victory to Donald Trump
Anthony Albanese has credited his election landslide with a new two-word slogan: 'progressive patriotism', as he hits back at naysayers who suggest he owes his win to Donald Trump.
The Prime Minister debuted the new catchphrase in a wide-ranging interview on Nine's Inside Politics podcast, where he insisted he believed not only in the state as a vehicle for improving people's lives, but also the market.
'Markets are a democratic mechanism as well through the economy of expression, I believe, of a private sector as being the key driver of growth,' he said.
'But the public sector should step in when there is market failure. I think that during the campaign as well we had progressive patriotism, if you like.'
He added: 'We spoke about doing things the Australian way, not looking towards any other method or ideology overseas to try to copy.
'If we get this right, we can be increasingly successful.'
The Prime Minister defined 'progressive patriotism' as his approach to strengthening Medicare, housing reform and his pride in Australia's peaceful multicultural identity as a symbol for the rest of the world to emulate.
'At a time where there's conflict in the world, where people are often divided on the basis of race or religion, here in Australia, we can be a microcosm for the world,' he said.
But his reference to 'doing things the Australian way' was a repetition of criticisms he made of Peter Dutton's attempts to mirror some of Trump's policies in his campaign.
In a clear echo of Trump's sweeping reforms, the former Opposition Leader vowed to end working from home for public servants and to slash the number of public sector staff, only to desperately try to distance himself from the US President when he unveiled his punitive global tariffs.
Yet, when asked whether he owed his victory to the toxic combination of Dutton and Trump, Mr Albanese hit back, suggesting the pundits who were predicting a minority government at best for Labor had got it wrong.
'I think that some of the commentariat have looked for reasons why their commentary was so out of touch last year,' he said.
Mr Albanese said it was Labor's 'destiny... to try to be the natural party of government, rather than look for dividing people'.
'That's one of the increasing issues I think in the last campaign , was who was seeking to bring people together and who was seeking to divide people,' he added.
'That's why things like culture wars are so unproductive, because they seek to pit people against each other.'
He said some in his team thought it had been 'crazy brave' of him to agree to four leadership debates with the former Opposition leader.
'I think it was the right thing to do. I went to the National Press Club, I did all of that,' he added.
Mr Albanese also took aim at the Greens, who he claimed had become 'vulnerable'.
'I saw that in my local community, that they had lost their way in blocking Labor's housing reforms and not being a party which concentrated on the environment and issues that mattered most to people,' he told the podcast.
The Prime Minister is currently on his first overseas visit since the election victory in Jakarta where he will hold talks with the Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
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