Anthony Albanese’s Palestine declaration

PM Anthony Albanese’s recent actions, including his decisive step this week to at last recognise a separate Palestinian State, suggest he may become the progressive leader for our times, writes Dave Donovan.

MANY PROGRESSIVES have been disappointed by the slow pace of change under a Labor Government led by a Prime Minister seldom seen in Australia ─ one emerging from the working class Left. After almost three years in power, many suggest Albanese, a self-proclaimed progressive, has done little to advance fairness and equity, or pursue a more independent Australia. Instead, they claim, Albanese has adopted a conservative approach, barely distinguishable from previous Liberal Party-led governments.

Independent Australia has been one of the critics, often frustrated by the glacial pace of progress under the Albanese-led ALP.

However, Anthony Albanese’s recent actions, including his decisive step this week to at last recognise a separate Palestinian State, as well as his subsequent chastisement of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as “being in denial” over that nation’s inhumane conduct in its Occupied Territories, suggests he may be the progressive leader for our times. A statesman able to deny his natural tendencies by reading the mood of an often fearful nation and build sentiment towards progressing, bit by bit, toward producing a more unified and progressive nation. One that may be more enduring than any produced by previous Labor leaders for more than a generation.

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ALBANESE’S “OVERDUE” RECOGNITION OF PALESTINE

Many might say that Albanese’s Palestinian announcement was long overdue. That it comes after two years of seeming blind support for Israel’s actions, with little sympathy for those Israel oppressed. After just last year expelling an MP from its own party, Fatima Payman, simply for supporting a parliamentary resolution to recognise a Palestinian state — the position Albanese has now adopted.

That his decision comes as a mere exigency, after poll numbers swung solidly and the massive outpouring of public support for Palestine shown in recent polls and shown vividly in the wildly successful Sydney Harbour Bridge March a fortnight ago.

Independent Australia holds strong sympathies with these views, but prefers to propose an alternative contention. That Albanese faced a virulently pro-Israel popular press, strongly manipulated by well-resourced Israeli PR pushing the narrative of increasing antisemitism in Australia and an Israel beset by Islamic terrorism by Hamas. That as a strong ally of Israel, and tied militarily and economically through ANZUS and now AUKUS, to Israel's greater supporter and benefactor, the USA, Albanese had little scope to publicly express the horror all of us feel at war crimes.

At least until other nations similarly tied, such as NATO nations, began to speak out on the horrors we are unable to ignore, being displayed and reported so vividly and irrefutably day after dreadful day on our TV screens, monitors and phones. Australia is just a small-to-medium power, after all, of little practical consequence in global geopolitical terms.

Perhaps it was our former colonial possessor and AUKUS partner Britain, also the holder of the Palestinian Mandate prior to Israel’s occupation in 1948, declaring support for a Palestinian State recently, that provided Albanese with the cover needed to make this week’s watershed announcement. That and similar announcements by other major military industrial powers and U.S./Israel allies, such as Germany and France.

Surely they were factors behind Albanese's abrupt volte face this week to finally recognise Palestinian nationhood. Albanese is a shrewd politician, demonstrably adept at gauging the prevailing public mood and ineluctable zeitgeist of the times. And with the Opposition arguing it was unwise and claiming it intends to overturn the decision, no matter if it is three, six or even nine years in the future when they retain power, he not only puts himself on the right side of history, but also neatly skewers Australia’s feeble opposition.

But perhaps Albanese’s greatest masterstroke is the precise timing of his decision, which, being made this week, carries a profound resonance with our own national history and identity. Because also this week, on Saturday, it is the 50^th anniversary of Australia’s first attempt, also under a Labor Prime Minister, to recognise and redress the actions of our forebears upon our own downtrodden dispossessed ─ this land’s First Nations Peoples.

On 16 August 1975, Gough Whitlam famously trickled blood red soil into Indigenous elder Vincent Lingiari’s hand. The act symbolised Lingiari’s Gurindji Nation’s timeless connection to their ancestral land, which he confirmed by granting them possession of all that soil at Wave Hill Station. This was the start of Indigenous land rights in Australia ─ a project continued under another Labor PM, Paul Keating, through his Mabo legislation and which is still very much a work in progress.

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ALBANESE’S PATH TO GREATNESS

Anthony Albanese is far from being a Gough Whitlam or even a Paul Keating. Independent Australia believes he is shrewder than both and certainly less impetuous. Both former PMs were men of action, willing to take risks and often forced to suffer the consequences. Which included both being tumbled out of power early in their political careers, their agenda unfinished.

Whitlam indeed was dismissed and defeated mere months after his Wave Hill moment. Keating was tipped out in 1996, just in time for John Howard to foil his cherished dream of an independent Australian republic in 1999.

Interestingly, Gough famously said you can’t govern from Opposition. He was elected after more than two decades of moribund Coalition rule. A well-heeled, silky-tongued barrister by trade and member of the Labor Right, he was elected largely by being presented as a more moderate member of the Labor Party.

Albanese, by contrast, is the son of a single, working-class mother and a veteran fixture of Labor’s (almost) socialist Left. He was defeated in his first attempt at becoming Labor leader by Bill Shorten, a more conservative member of Labor’s right faction. Albanese became leader after Shorten lost a seemingly unlosable election to “Scotty from Marketing” Morrison in 2019. Under Albo’s leadership, Labor regained power in 2022, ending almost a decade in opposition. And then Albanese was re-elected.

Albanese is not flashy or even particularly interesting. Slightly pudgy, with middle-aged guy dress sense, he seems like the sort of steady pair of hands you’d trust to run the local branch of a large national appliance store chain. Slightly grumpy and sometimes curt, the guy you feel you can trust to get the job done, even if he might not enjoy dealing with all the idiots (or Benjamins, if you will). A fella who would prefer to be at home watching his beloved Rabbitohs play, cool one in hand, than deal with all this shit. But deal with it he must, because who can be trusted not to muck it up?

He is, in other words, solidly dependable and fetchingly Australian. Maybe it is a facade, but whatever, his approach is working. And he is no one’s fool. Because following the chaos of the Morrison years, highlighted by COVID, inflation and endless PR stunts, the first task on Albanese’s checklist was to rebuild Australia’s faltering confidence − economic and otherwise – and stay in Government.

And under the expert stewardship of Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers, Australia’s economy did rebound, decisively, and the ALP was duly re-elected this year. All with Albanese saying little that anyone can recall, while looking just a little grumpy, as his Government is making very few sweeping policy changes. His small-target strategy was so intent, he even had his party run dead on the Indigenous Voice Referendum, breaking many hearts.

This low-key approach continued into the start of his second term. With the economy still on the upswing, inflation is back below three per cent, and borrowers being rewarded this week by an overdue Reserve Bank interest rate cut, most people had begun feeling much more relaxed. So after more than four years in power, Albanese’s approval rating and poll results have record highs.

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Which leads to the obvious question: does Albanese’s success thus far suggest Australia is a conservative nation and Albanese has accepted that─ even to the extent of denying his natural inclinations and pursuing a more modest agenda? Or is it just that Australia has, after decades of polarising predominantly Coalition rule since John Howard, become a more fearful nation, craving stolid, predictable leadership? One still in shock from pandemic and the pace of change in an increasingly dangerous world. One with a mad President back in the Oval Office and an ally engaging in genocide.

In those situations, a sane and boring period of rule seems like manna from heaven. Recognising this and acting accordingly suggests the genius of Anthony Albanese.

But as Paul Keating said, if you have the electoral capital, at some stage you have to spend it. Or what is it for? Eventually, he must lead and make a difference, especially with an electorate more relaxed with its personal finances and able to expend some time thinking about the good of others. A progressive Australia, in other words.

Which is what makes Albanese’s actions this week especially interesting. This could be just the beginning of Albanese’s true rise to greatness. If he is elected in 2028, in his third term, he might make a reality Paul Keating’s republican dream. He might fix our public health system, perhaps adding dentistry to Medicare. Build houses for the homeless. Redistribute some of the wealth from the idle rich; cancel the expensive, subpar American subs. Maybe reinvest some of the proceeds put into our increasingly unaffordable and dysfunctional public education system. Cancel HECS. Build a world-class broadband system. The options are endless.

Maybe a renewedly progressive and unassailable PM Albanese might even continue the work of Gough at Wave Hill and bring proper reconciliation between new Australians and traditional owners. It is something to be hoped for.

Though it may not happen. It might all be castles in the air and Albanese nothing more than a damp squib. But we hope not, because his actions this week give us grounds for something ineffably sweet: a sense of optimism. Which all started with Palestine, and what more worthy place could there be to begin to restore and revitalise?