As Albanese celebrates 30 years in parliament, what would the leftwing warrior of 1996 think of today’s PM?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/02/albanese-30-years-then-now-australia-prime-minister
As Albanese celebrates 30 years in parliament, what would the leftwing warrior of 1996 think of today’s PM?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/02/albanese-30-years-then-now-australia-prime-minister
30 Comments
I like the guardian, they put shit on everyone, mostly
I honestly think part of why Albanese hated Max Chandler-Mather so much is that Max was saying a lot of things that a younger Albanese would’ve supported
Frankly, I think he’s a spineless, bloviating cunt emblematic of a cynical, professional class of politicians who view leadership as a management role. Therefore, I hate him for what he represents.
The guy who started the friends of Palestine network? I don’t think he’d be impressed
1996 Albanese would absolute despise 2026 Albanese.
The mid-90s where a period of massive societal optimism. The economy was growing, wages rising, standards of living improving, technology felt exciting as people started to get dial-up internet in their homes and move phones had started to get wide consumer traction.
If you showed somebody from that era Australia today they’d probably ask why it went wrong.
No one survives the Labor Party gauntlet with their values intact.
“not difficult”
I think he would feel exhausted.
The LNP/ONP have been relentless on all new levels of evil/scum.
Used a horrific tragedy to get points in the public eye and attacked him
Have the media and endless bots pushing hate and division on every open ended social media.
It must be just exhausting.
Gough’s spinning in his grave.
What would you at think of yourself 30 years ago? who gives a fuck
Sellout
Whe he was elected we were promised the most radically left wing government since Whitlam and I just ain’t seeing it
Disappointed … like the rest of us! Hope has turned to despair unfortunately.
He’s the most underwhelming disappointing PM of my lifetime specifically because of who he was vs what he’s become. He’s done nothing. All these problems and he’s doing nothing to address them. It’s pathetic. Even okay ideas are implemented ineffectively, like a social media ban that does nothing to actually keep kids off social media. The irony of a guy who touted his public housing background doing sweet fuck all for housing affordability. Could he actually do less?
Albo learnt a lot in those 30 years. No doubt he’s been a keen student of what makes a successful PM from HAwke to Howard.
He’d loathe him.
Are we forgetting that Albo literally started his government with one of the biggest potential reforms in national history?
The voice would’ve been monumental. More than half the country told him to go fuck himself. So instead he’s just decided to plod along, bulk billing, urgent care clinics, IR reforms, HAFF, stage 3 tax cuts rework etc.
I think we’ll see some useful fiscal policy in this next budget, still too little though. But it could be a starting point to build some momentum.
It’s a tough world right now. Frankly I think a lot of Australians are just tired and want boring. It’s not making it better but it’s not risking making it much worse.
Either way, we can all hope they bring bolder visions because I think we’re stuck with Labor for a while yet.
The usual centralisation that comes with extended runs in Australian politics. If you want to be PM, it’s hard to be at the extreme ends of the party.
[Anthony Albanese does the Rage Scream](https://youtu.be/sVWMuK863vE)
As Albanese celebrates 30 years in parliament, hundreds of thousands of people celebrate another night living in a tent or on the streets.
It’s an abortion of our political system that someone can be a public servant for 30 years
I wonder if 1996 Albanese thought that the Australian population would continually vote against their best interests when it came to things like negative gearing reforms and mining taxes?
He would be thinking “I thought it was hard for Labor now, 2026 looks fucked”.
Albo is far from perfect, I wish he would do some radical shit, but hes facing an ultra biased media landscape, hence why we got boring Albo. If you try and pass big reform such as Rudds Supertax, Shortens housing reform, Miles resource royalties or Albos own voice; the media slaughters you and you probably lose the next election.
If you focus smaller options making a real positive impact such as same job same pay, future made in Australia, income tax cuts, qualification scrutiny, longterm housing funds or resurrecting the corpse of TAFE; the media ignores that and focuses on cultural issues and depression heroin so now everyone thinks you get nothing done… And then probably lose the next election.
WE the electorate kept voting against major reform at every chance, so of course we got boring ALBO, its the only way they could win and keep the Coalition out.
The times are different, the overton window has been shifted further right over the last few decades, so it’s no surprise that most parties and factions pivoted accordingly.
The left has been permanently crippled by big media, predominantly based on untruth, if you recognise this, your politics must adjust.
I believe he would be shocked at himself and his party for giving in to so much right wing pressure.
Sellout
We need to stop career politicians!
All politicians should have some level of term limits and not just the prime minister. It could even be 5-10 years and if you haven’t achieved anything close to what you campaigned on then you get fired like any other job!
They should also have a minimum number of years of private sector experience and respectable achievements before taking public office. They must understand that there is no government without the private sector, which funds their salary and spending.
People keep bringing up housing reform. Didn’t Labor run on it 10 years ago and were beaten.
As soon as the even mention negative gearing, the media start pulling their hair out.
They clearly had to move their position significantly just to win an election.
Any man that doesn’t have transparency as part of his government goals explains how conservative this man is. I didn’t like it when he turned up to John Ibrahim’s wedding with other dick, Kyle Sandilands. I knew he was dancing with the devil then. No different than the LNP, just different suit and tie. I had a gut melt right then. He used tax payer money to set up the NACC and then made it a closed door policy to hearings. An agency using public money to hold closed enquiry? WTF? Just so he could cover the arses of the corruption in the Robodebt scandal. That’s why I call them political elites. They only serve themselves.