From the National Press Club: As I navigated the pothole-ridden roads into Canberra, rattling over newly installed rumble strips local councils seem to think pass for infrastructure, I found myself mulling over Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s impending address at the National Press Club. The state of the roads seem a fitting metaphor for the state of our democracy. Jarring, neglected, and crying out for repair while offering the latest nonsense.
When I arrived, the protesters, who stood at the carpark and front entrances with their climate change banners (if only I could put our Editor’s ‘climate change’ expression into text!), looked like they’d just rocked up from their taxpayer-funded offices for a lunchtime lark.
When I realised there was no chance of asking the Prime Minister my question as I was last on the list, I settled into the excellent beef dish (hats off to the chef at the National Press Club who is brilliant) and some comforting red wine.
I’m an old soldier and I think I’m the only journo who drinks these days. More’s the pity. What a bleak future the Wokerati have left for my grandchildren.
Albo’s performance was a masterclass in polished rhetoric, delivered with the unflappable confidence of a man who knows he’s playing on an empty field. But as I sat there, nursing a glass of red and a growing sense of unease, it wasn’t the Prime Minister’s aplomb that struck me… It was the deafening silence of the Opposition, whose absence of vinegar is fast becoming a national scandal.
Albo stood at the podium with the air of a leader who has assumed political inevitability. He spoke of economic stability, renewable energy investments, and a recalibrated foreign policy. All of these were set somewhere in the future, grand promises that deserved to be dissected with surgical precision by a competent opposition.
However, with the Opposition in its current shambolic state, Albo can do no wrong. The beta male has stepped up to the plate and he is Babe Ruth because nobody is fielding.
Or to use another sporting analogy, the Opposition has offered nothing but free kicks. I want to say something about Steve Mortimer’s faking here but it’s the wrong team, the wrong era, and Albo makes Mortimer look like an amateur. At least Mortimer had a strategy.
Bereft of coherence or vision, the Opposition have surrendered their sacred duty to scrutinise and hold power to account. This isn’t just a tactical failure, it is an existential crisis. Without a robust counterforce, Albo has been given carte blanche to reshape Australia on his terms, unchecked and unchallenged.
Albo’s strategy is to do anything. In the absence of nothing from the Opposition, it’s a winning move, even if it is as boring as the proverbial bat excrement.
With a flourish, as if to prove how boring he can be, Albo whipped out his Medicare card and promised that by 2030, the card is all every Australian will need to see a bulk-billing clinic. A bold claim, but one that rings hollow when you’re pulling out your credit card alongside your Medicare card at the GP, as I’ll be doing tomorrow.
When Albo pulled out his Medicare card there was a chuckle and sporadic applause from the audience. It was a good thing, too, otherwise my inappropriately audible groan would have been picked up by the TV mics.
Bulk-billing clinics are about as common as unicorns, and Albanese’s distant timeline, conveniently beyond the next election cycle, offers little comfort. The Opposition should have pounced so many times to expose the gap between rhetoric and reality. Instead, they have sat mute, allowing the Prime Minister to bask in his unchallenged narrative.
(NB: Narrative: a story where communists tell you it’s raining while they take a leak in your pocket.)
Energy policy was another annoying free kick the Opposition gave Albo. Meanwhile, surrounded by wind turbines in the Upper Lachlan, I’m about to get a 34 per cent hike to my power bill. Albo’s renewable energy vision, cloaked in save-the-planet platitudes, sidesteps the hard truth that costs are soaring for ordinary Australians.
Albo went on to dismiss the Coalition’s nuclear policy as culturally misaligned and prohibitively expensive, conveniently ignoring that global AI giants are turning to nuclear to power their data centres.
Where is the Opposition’s rebuttal? Nowhere. They’ve left the field open for Albanese to paint their ideas as outlandish while offering no alternative of their own. The trouble is, Albo is right to exploit the Opposition’s weakness. They are too interested in fighting each other rather than fighting the good fight for the Australians who need them. It’s a national disgrace.
Even on defence, where scrutiny is paramount, Albo dodged with ease. When pressed on spending figures, he pivoted to vague talk of ‘assets’ and ‘relationships’ with Pacific nations, never mind that Port Moresby is hardly a safe bet for a diplomatic footy match, or that China’s influence looms large in our backyard.
One journalist asked point-blank if China was a direct threat. Albanese sidestepped.
And the Opposition? They continue to forfeit this fight. This is a government coasting on the assurance that no one will call out its evasions.
The consequences of this imbalance are dire. An unchallenged government grows complacent, insular, and prone to overreach (or indeed, underreach). Without a credible opposition to temper its excesses, Labor risks turning Australia into a socialist republic by stealth, where soaring costs and grandiose promises erode the very fabric of our nation.
The Opposition’s infighting and aimless posturing, trying to out-wet Labor rather than outsmart them, has left Albo free to dominate the political landscape. He’s not just governing. He’s presiding over a one-sided spectacle where dissent is little more than a whisper.
As I left the National Press Club, my question unasked (number 23 out of 23 journalists – apparently our almost two-centuries-old masthead is a ‘niche’ publication), I stood outside, shivering in Canberra’s biting cold. The protesters had vanished, likely back to their public service desks, and the roads home were as rough as ever.
What lingered wasn’t the wine or the steak, it was the sinking realisation that our democracy is limping along without its vital counterweight.
Albanese may savour his dominance, but it’s not his brilliance that’s secured it. It’s the Opposition’s self-inflicted irrelevance.
Australia deserves better. It deserves an Opposition that rediscovers its spine, articulates a vision, and challenges the government not for obstruction’s sake, but for the sake of accountability and integrity.
Until that happens, Albanese will continue to reign supreme, forging ahead with a confidence born not of genius, but of neglect. The health of our democracy hinges on a contest of ideas. Right now, that contest is perilously one-sided, and the long-term ramifications should make us all shudder.
It’s time for the Opposition to wake up. If they don’t, we’re all driving on a road to nowhere, and the potholes are only getting deeper.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is The Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.