Anthony Albanese 'raised concerns' before Labor election defeat
Labor will reposition itself as the party of collective aspiration rather than “individualism” in an attempt to unite its progressive and working class constituencies, Anthony Albanese has suggested.
In an interview with ABC’s Insiders three days after the release of Labor’s scathing election review, Albanese revealed the opposition was not on track for victory according to its own internal tracking polling despite the collective belief it was poised to win the May election.
Albanese also accused Scott Morrison of “attempting to divide the nation” when asked about his claims progressives “sneer” at their opponents and environmentalism is pitting citydwellers against regional Australians.
The review, conducted by Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson, blamed a combination of factors for the loss including weak strategy with a cluttered policy agenda, poor adaptability in the face of the Liberal leadership change and an unpopular leader in Bill Shorten.
Albanese said he had “raised concerns” internally before the defeat including in the Whitlam oration in June 2018 – in which he argued for aspiration and against bashing big business – and in the final week after visits to key marginal seats Corangamite, Swan and Longman.
“You could tell on the ground, when you listened to what people were saying, they were raising concerns,” he told Insiders.
“And when you look at our tracking polling, and this I wasn’t aware of, the tracking polling showed that on seven occasions, we were going backwards, and on 11, I think it was, we weren’t getting a swing big enough to win.
“So on a majority of the tracking polling where you go into marginal seats and look at whether you’re actually going to win or not, a majority of them were telling us that we weren’t going to win.”
Albanese also said he “wasn’t aware that there wasn’t a campaign committee, but I wasn’t a member of the leadership group making those decisions”.
The review found that multiple research methods were not subjected to robust debate that could have resolved inconsistencies among them. The tracking poll used during the contest “was persistently less optimistic than the published polling, but inaccuracies in the overall research program led Labor to believe it was slightly ahead when it was, in fact, behind”, it said.
Albanese said that he unites Labor’s progressive and working class constituencies in his seat of Grayndler, where 40% of people speak a language other than English at home, home to both “many working Australians” and also the “professional classes”.
“I don’t buy the false division. I think that Australians do have common interests. Australians have common interests about security at work.”
Albanese suggested as Morrison pretends that “change just won’t happen” Labor could address Australians’ insecurities about what jobs they will have in the future and the impact of climate change, including on farmers and regional communities.
“By having a clear platform and policy agenda, which isn’t cluttered at the next election, we can bring together the forces that will see Labor as, what I believe we should be, the natural party of government for this country.”
Asked about Morrison’s comments about “sneering” progressives, Albanese said he did not “have a problem with Labor people’s tone” and suggested that Australians’ belief in fairness and coming together at times of tragedy, such as the current bushfires, disproved his attempts to “divide the nation”.
“So one of the principles that I’ve put forward is aspiration. We need to ensure that we’re the party of wealth creation - not just concerned about distribution.
“And when we look at aspiration, I believe the difference between me and the prime minister is he sees aspiration as just about individualism.
“I see it that people aspire for better things for their family, for their neighbours, for their community and for their nation.”
Although Albanese accepted that some people were “blindsided” by Labor’s proposal to end taxpayer funded rebates for retirees with excess franking credits, he argued that voters were “misled”, citing the example of a pensioner who didn’t own shares wrongly believing she would be affected by the changes.
Albanese refused to commit to dump the policy, explaining Labor would outline its policies in an “orderly and strategic way” before the next election, scheduled for 2022.
Asked about how Labor would deal with the issue of coal, Albanese argued Labor will not have to choose between the environment and jobs because “climate change is an opportunity to create literally hundreds of thousands of jobs, if we get it right”.
He cited his first major policy speech, in which argued that metallurgical coal is a necessary component of wind turbines.
Albanese said the Coalition’s bill to facilitate deregistration of unions and disqualification of their officials was an “attack on the organisations that go into workplaces that deal with issues like wage theft”, recommitting Labor to oppose it.