Shape or be shaped: What's driving Albo's agenda
Lounging in the conference room of a Royal Australian Air Force Airbus, donning a grey Joy Division T-shirt, the Prime Minister was noticeably relaxed as he and his China delegation jetted home toward Canberra.
It was a tough trip to China.
He carried the interests of Australia's business community, iron ore giants, tourism sector and researchers while navigating a delicate diplomatic relationship with Xi Jinping – a mission overshadowed hawkish hints out of the White House.
At home, the opposition was quick to criticise him for not producing anything tangible, despite several agreements signed while there and $20bn in trade barriers removed over the past year.
'I think it's disappointing that they've broken with what is normal protocol, and been critical of this visit with our major trading partner,' Mr Albanese said.
'It shows that they haven't really changed their position or their attitude towards China, and that's disappointing.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says what happens this decade will determine Australia's success later in the century. Martin Ollman / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia
'I think it's disappointing that they've broken with what is normal protocol, and been critical of this visit with our major trading partner,' Mr Albanese said.
'It shows that they haven't really changed their position or their attitude towards China, and that's disappointing.'
In an increasingly uncertain world, he sees China and its exploding middle class as key to Australia's economic future.
The relentless march of China's economic growth is undeniable.
In Shanghai, one of the three cities Mr Albanese visited, the growth is exemplified by the transformation of the metropolis' centre.
Where rice paddies once dotted the area when he visited some 30 years ago now stands towering skyscrapers draped in neon.
Meanwhile, the city's 25 million or so inhabitants get around in state-of-the-art electric vehicles.
With China leading a middle class boom in Asia, Mr Albanese said his government's focus was on implementing 'long term changes that Australia needs' to not only survive, but to thrive.
'The world is changing fast, and you can either shape that change, or it will shape you,' he said.
'And we've just been to a part of the world, in China, that's obviously changed very quickly over recent decades.
'And so there's a link – one of the reasons why that was an important visit is that the connections in our trade and economic relationships have a real difference for jobs and the economy.
'In Australia, one in four of our jobs is trade-dependent.' President Xi Jinping did not raise the Port of Darwin during the meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister's Office / Handout / NewsWire Credit: NewsWire Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did raise Taiwan during the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Prime Minister's Office / Handout / NewsWire Credit: NewsWire
'The world is changing fast, and you can either shape that change, or it will shape you,' he said.
'And we've just been to a part of the world, in China, that's obviously changed very quickly over recent decades.
'And so there's a link – one of the reasons why that was an important visit is that the connections in our trade and economic relationships have a real difference for jobs and the economy.
'In Australia, one in four of our jobs is trade-dependent.'
Mr Albanese said his domestic agenda and international agenda worked hand-in-hand, and with 94 lower house seats following the May election, he is in a strong position to power on with both.
Among the big ticket items for the first sitting fortnight are slashing student debt by 20 per cent and legislating penalty rates.
Longer term items include speeding up the renewables transition, building 1.2m homes and making more things in Australia and keeping it sustainable.
'I feel a sense of responsibility,' Mr Albanese said.
'I really believe this decade will determine how successful Australia is for the decades to come, because this is … the transition to net zero is critical.
'The transition nature of the workforce changes.
'They're dealing with artificial intelligence and new technologies that will have an impact on the nature of work, all of these things.
'And I think it is more difficult than it was for previous generations.'
He added that while he was able to get a 'secure job' after finishing high school, now people 'work in multiple jobs'.
'It's a different world,' he said. Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping were keen to reframe the Australia-China relationship. Prime Minister's Office / Handout / NewsWire Credit: NewsWire
During his trip, Mr Albanese was keen to reframe the Australia-China relationship from its increasingly militaristic nature to more friendlier terms.
It was a message that went down well in Beijing, if Chinese state media is a measure.
Whether it went down well in Washington is another matter.
Though, Mr Albanese made clear throughout his diplomatic and business blitz that chasmic differences remained between Australia and China.
Any suggestion that Australia was realigning itself geopolitically was firmly met with his mantra: 'We will agree where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest.'
But Mr Albanese also made clear he would not allow White House hawks determine Australia's economic future.
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Sky News AU
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The week the West was lost: Anthony Albanese joins the countries 'duped' on Israel by terrorists in trucks
This past week has demonstrated how the Western world, which often speaks about defending freedom, liberty and democracy, can be so easily duped by terrorists in pick-up trucks. We saw a statement by 28 countries, including Australia, that was so detached from reality that it blamed Israel for the terrible consequences of the current war in Gaza, rather than Hamas who started the war in the first place, and is refusing all attempts to end it. And of course, it called for an immediate permanent ceasefire without calling on Hamas to disarm or give up power. This is akin to calling for the end of World War II while leaving Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan intact. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese went a step further saying in a statement that Israel was 'killing civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food' and that its actions 'cannot be defended or ignored'. Despite these harsh and demonstrably untrue words, he didn't go as far as French President Emanuel Macron who declared France's intentions to recognise a Palestinian state in September. Britain and Canada have now signalled similar intentions. In doing so these countries are effectively rewarding Hamas for its atrocities of October 7, 2023, while whitewashing almost 100 years of Arab and Palestinian terrorism and intransigence. They appear to have forgotten how Palestinian leaders have constantly rejected statehood from as long ago as the 1937 Peel Commission plan to the more recent 2008 Olmert plan and up until the 2020 Trump Plan, in which the Palestinians refused to even engage. These declarations were predictably praised and lauded by both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. One would think that when a death cult praises you, along with a corrupt entity that financially rewards terrorism, this would cause you to question whether your understandings and actions are morally sound. Well, think again! The West has lost its moral compass and now flounders in the dark, unable to have the courage and conviction of its own stated values, preferring instead to attack the victims of evil, rather than evil itself. No one denies there is suffering in Gaza and the images are horrible, but what so much of the West still refuses to accept is that this is a direct result of the deliberate intentions of a death cult terror group whose leaders openly state that their goal remains the destruction of the Jewish state and the genocide of the Jewish people. Moreover, these same leaders have also been open that they believe the suffering of Gaza civilians are 'necessary sacrifices" and serve their evil cause. Israel has already facilitated over 1.8 million tonnes of aid into Gaza – and has just announced several major measures to improve aid access, including daily local ceasefires, designated aid corridors, aid airdrops, and facilitating aid donations from Egypt and Jordan. 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The obsession the world has in blaming Israel for the current crisis is not only misplaced – it's dangerous. Anti-Semitic incidents have been cropping up all around the world, including Australia. In Spain, 50 Jewish school kids were kicked off a flight for singing Hebrew songs. Jewish cruise passengers were also prevented from disembarking by anti-Israel protestors at a Greek port. Jews were also collectively slandered by a leading British broadcaster, James O'Brien, on the LBC channel in London. And here in Australia, 10- and 11-year-old students from the Jewish day school Mt Scopus College, were verbally assaulted during an excursion at the Melbourne Museum, by students from another school who harassed them with chants of 'free Palestine' and called them 'dirty Jews". Rather than confronting Hamas' terrorism, the West is choosing the easy path of blaming Israel instead, taken in by false narratives, distorted reporting and blatant falsehoods. When this war ends, Israel may be battered, but it will survive - it always does. But I fear for the West. In its rush to appease populist outrage, leaders have abandoned their integrity and betrayed the very values they claim to uphold. This moral collapse doesn't just endanger Israel - it threatens the very soul of the West. Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)
West Australian
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West Australian
2 hours ago
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New parliament, same old props for Anthony Albanese in ascendency
Midway through Question Time on Tuesday, Anthony Albanese received a yellow messenger envelope from which he extracted a slip of green plastic. Health Minister Mark Butler had already discreetly handed his own Medicare card to the Prime Minister minutes earlier. When Mr Albanese rose next, sure enough, he brandished the Medicare card that was never far from his hand during the election campaign. He was so wedded to the bit that, on the day he called the election, a staffer had to be dispatched to the Lodge to retrieve the green and gold card that had been forgotten on the early morning drive to visit the Governor-General. The reiteration of the familiar gesture during this first sitting of Parliament spoke to the Government's determination to focus attention on its delivery of election commitments. It wants to keep talking about what it's doing and sees the Opposition as irrelevant. The attitude shows as well in how Mr Albanese is approaching interacting with new Liberal leader Sussan Ley – or, rather, not interacting with her. He ignores her in the chamber and out of it. Even letters sent to his office go unanswered, where previously Peter Dutton's missives would at least be acknowledged. The Coalition meanwhile was determined to focus on the very topics Australians have just comprehensively shown they like Labor's approach to: health and energy. It didn't carry out any sustained test of brand new ministers Sam Rae (whose aged care portfolio has plenty that needs examining) or assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, baffling people on both sides of politics. The toughest questions came from the crossbenchers, like Kate Chaney asking why just 5 per cent of the National Reconstruction Fund had been spent, or Helen Haines wondering what was happening for the nearly 90,000 older Australians waiting an extra four months for the home-care packages they urgently need. Ms Ley and her inner circle jettisoned their planned QT strategy on the fly the day Mr Albanese produced the Medicare card to instead hammer the Prime Minister on the cost of seeing a doctor. Despite the boosted bulk-billing incentives promised during the election not kicking in until November, they asked repeated questions about why it wasn't free now to see a doctor. Coalition frontbencher Melissa McIntosh brandished her own Medicare card along with a credit card during Monday's question time, earning her an admonishment from Speaker Milton Dick: 'The member will not use props!' Mr Albanese, too, received a light rap on the knuckles – 'I'm sure the Prime Minister will look after that card carefully and will continue with his answer' – but it didn't prevent his gleeful grandstanding. He delivered a lesson in the old adage of campaigning in poetry and governing in prose – and fine print. How many Australians today were using their credit card to see the GP? 'Too many is the answer, which is why we want 90 per cent by 2030 to just use this little card here, this piece of green and gold plastic,' Mr Albanese said. Energy Minister Chris Bowen could barely contain his enthusiasm at being given multiple opportunities to point out the Coalition's ongoing rift over net zero and climate policy. After the WA Liberals' State council used the weekend between the sitting weeks to call on the party to dump net zero, Mr Bowen linked Andrew Hastie's leadership ambitions with his enthusiastic support for the moves and hit job on local leader Basil Zempilas. 'The West Australian Liberal Party state council voted against net zero, the Leader of the Opposition in WA came out and disassociated himself from that which earned him an attack from the member for Canning,' Mr Bowen told Parliament. 'The member for Canning will undermine any leader of the opposition that he can find. He's taking a practice run in Perth for what he intends to do in Canberra, sometime in the next 12 months as we all know.' Ali France, who won Dickson from Mr Dutton, asked the first and last questions of the fortnight. 'How has the Albanese Labor Government been pursuing its agenda this fortnight? And how does this compare to other approaches in Parliament?' she inquired on Thursday. 'The Opposition have certainly been pursuing their own agenda – or, should I say, agendas, because there's more than one over there: fighting publicly over whether climate change is real and over whether they support net zero,' Mr Albanese said, continuing with a jibe about 'a split screen showing a split party'. The Prime Minister cautioned his caucus colleagues this week against hubris, telling them Labor had to maintain its humility and sense of service and purpose to keep in voters' good books. That hasn't stopped him and his trusty Leader of the House Tony Burke from rubbing their opponents' noses in the new way of doing things. This is compounded by the depth of the Government's frontbench and ranks of rising talent, in contrast to a decimated and divided Coalition. It's like a grand final team running on against an under-14s side, one longtime political observer put it. From slashing staff to slashing questions and committee leadership positions, they're taking advantage of Labor's numbers in both chambers and control of the ways of Parliament to hinder the Opposition's work in ways that will barely register with the public at large. Take the last-minute stunt on Thursday afternoon, where Labor did a switcheroo on the private members' business for Parliament's return at the end of this month, coming good on a threat to allow Nationals renegade Barnaby Joyce all the time in the world to debate his legislation to repeal net zero. Labor also backed the Greens to set up an examination of 'information integrity on climate change and energy', which might have escaped notice had the Greens not belled the cat on it being an inquiry into conservative campaign outfit Advance. The broad sense from Liberals willing to give her a chance is that Ms Ley's first parliamentary test went OK. She didn't make a splash, but she is giving voters a reason to look again at the party. The fights over net zero and soul-searching about the party's membership and women should have happened three years ago, Liberals from both sides of the party's broad church say. It might be leading to some pain now, but better now than on the eve of an election. Same goes for contributions like that of Longman MP Terry Young, who told Parliament the 'ridiculous practice' of quotas caused more problems than they solved. 'Men tend to be more drawn to vocations that involve maths and physical exertion like construction and trades, whereas women in the main tend to be drawn to careers that involve women and care and other people,' he said. The response from most Liberals asked about it was to put their head in their hands. It was a particularly stark contrast after a week of first speeches from Labor's two dozen new MPs, most of them women and many from diverse backgrounds. They told varied and often emotional stories of what had brought them to Parliament. But the one uniting strand throughout the speeches was their genuinely heartfelt thanks to Mr Albanese — far more so than is typical. Again and again the new MPs thanked him for believing in them when no one else did, for campaigning in their seat despite many writing it off, for asking them to run in the first place. 'Advice given to us when preparing our first speech was that it wouldn't be a bad career move to put in a 'thank you' to the Prime Minister,' Rowan Holzberger, who won the Queensland seat of Forde, said. 'Of course, I want to thank him for his performance during the campaign … But I really want to thank him for being like a big brother.' Once the excitement of the new dynamics of Parliament wears off and the Prime Minister falls back into old habits, there is potential for his bulging 123-member caucus to grow restless and unruly. The deep and personal loyalty to a leader on display during these speeches shows Mr Albanese will have as firm a grip on his party room as he does his Medicare card.
