Asked whether he can beat One Nation, the Prime Minister reached, in Jeremy Cordeaux’s telling, for a Churchillian flourish: we have to, we owe it to history, we have so much more to do. Jeremy’s verdict, on this Garage edition of the Court of Public Opinion, was blunt. God help us, he said. That is delusional.
He Really Thinks He Is Doing Well
What alarmed Jeremy was not the ambition but the self-belief behind it. Anthony Albanese, he argued, genuinely thinks he is doing a good job. The ego, Jeremy said, is the problem: a leader so convinced of his own record that he cannot see how the public actually feels.
Set against a by-election that just obliterated a 40-year Labor seat, and against Red Bridge and Newspoll numbers putting One Nation ahead of Labor nationally, the confidence struck Jeremy as denial dressed up as destiny.
Who Is Actually Better Off?
Jeremy put the government’s record to the test with a simple challenge. He said he would love to hear from anyone who genuinely feels their life is better for having this Labor government. Then he ran the ledger: the cost of living up, taxes up, debt up, real estate values down, and the cost of electricity up by billions since Labor came to power.
There were winners, he conceded, with heavy irony, the fraudsters rorting the NDIS are considerably better off. But for the ordinary household, he argued, the promised real change has meant higher costs and less security, not improvement.
“I Didn’t Lie, I Changed My Position”
What most provoked Jeremy was the Prime Minister accusing One Nation of dishonesty. This, Jeremy said, from a man whose own defence of a broken commitment was that he did not lie, he simply changed his position. What a hide, he repeated. To level the charge of dishonesty from that starting point struck Jeremy as gall of a high order.
It fit a pattern he keeps returning to: a government quick to attack its opponents’ integrity while asking the public to forgive its own reversals as mere changes of position.
Time At Home Might Help
Jeremy also questioned the Prime Minister’s priorities. For the next few months, he noted, Albanese’s diary is full of overseas trips, conferences, meetings and seminars, including a Pacific Islands Forum in Palau that most island leaders are, tellingly, skipping. Why go, Jeremy asked, and why are they staying away?
He suggested the Prime Minister might be better advised to spend more time in Australia, unless he sees himself as a liability at home. A leader who reads a catastrophic by-election as a call from history, Jeremy argued, is a leader not listening, and the public, on current numbers, is preparing to make him listen.
Listen To The Full Episode
Catch the complete Garage edition of The Court of Public Opinion, recorded live around the dining room table.
Watch The Full Episode
The Court of Public Opinion streams live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ACST), right here at jeremycordeaux.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app, and join the conversation with your calls and comments.
