Political luck has carried Albanese this far; only bold reform will define what comes next, writes DrMichael Galvin.

HAS THERE EVER BEEN an Australian Prime Minister more enigmatic thanAnthony Albanese?

Winston Churchills well-known words could have been written for Albo:

On the one hand, he goes through periods when he seems particularly error-prone. Just in the last couple of months, he has responded toBondiin a way that satisfied almost no one; he invited Israeli PresidentIsaac Herzogunapologetic Zionist and Gazabomb autographerto Australia (who then used his time in the country to double down on his anti-Palestinian rhetoric).

Albo also treated the Australianchildren of ISIS wivesin Syria with callous disregard for their welfare. And just the last few days, he managed to annoy most thinking women in the country by callingGrace Tamedifficult, a loaded term which nearly every woman understands is code for a misogynistic putdown (while most men wonder what all the fuss is about, perhaps because it is a negative word mainly used by men about women who annoy or threaten them in some way).

Behind the pageantry of Herzogs visit, critics argue Australia is ignoring legal warnings and moral accountability over Israels conduct in Palestine.

And then, of course, there is the way our PM seems to want to abase himself to the Murdoch world. Opening their newSky studiosfor them, all the while aware that these same Sky demagogues spend night after night despising and ridiculing him. The Grace Tame self-inflicted wound also happened while he was cosying up to this same Murdoch cabal in Melbourne.

The visuals were devastating for Albanese. No sooner had the word difficult come out of his mouth than he turned to the audience with a complicit smile on his face. Isnt this how all of us here in this room really feel about Grace Tame, his smirk suggested. (So much for the nonsense he trotted out the following day, pleading compassion as his reason for the difficult epithet. Does he not realise that such disingenuousness damages him more than anyone?)

And yet, there is also a case to be made that Albo is one of the most canny politicians in Australian history. His 2025 landslide election victory indeed, his whole improbable career would seem to support such a view. And on dozens of metrics, his government is better for working people than the alternative.

Alan Austins brilliant articles in Independent Australia provide all the information you need to understand that the Albanese Government is better than the Coalition on so many levels. For example,this article.

And there are some people who think Albanese is a genius. For example, a propos the invitation to the President of Israel which most observers would consider an egregious own goal a friend tried to make the case that what Albo was really doing was playing three-dimensional chess while the rest of us were playing checkers. The reasoning went like this:

Despite appearances, Albaneses real intention in inviting Herzog was to actually make the Zionist cause less popular and to increase opposition to the Gaza genocide. Strangely, as it turns out, this is actually what did end up happening.

In this three-dimensional scenario, Albo commands the big picture, while his South Australian lieutenant,Peter Malinauskas, killsWriters' Weekbut gives undreamt of publicity to authorRanda Abdel Fattahand the genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, NSW lieutenantChris Minnsplays his part:roughing upa few peaceful Muslims praying in front of the Sydney Town Hall, thereby ensuring even more sympathy for those opposed to Herzogs visit.

Despite languishing for years in an atrocious conditions, Australia's PMbelligerently refuses to rightfully repatriate wives of ISIS fighters or their innocent children. JamesMay comments.

Looked at like this, the Albanese/Malinauskas/Minns triumvirate play really was an instance of three-dimensional chess played brilliantly: Mission accomplished. Knowledge and support for Palestinians in Gaza go up; support for the Zionist regime in Israel stays steady, at best.

An interesting analysis, but I dont believe it for a second. The simpler explanation is that Albo and his lieutenants made a series of catastrophic errors, the consequences of which had the opposite effect to what they intended. Social cohesion was not enhanced; it was damaged in very public ways.

While I dont buy the canniest politician argument, one thing is certainly true: Albo is an extraordinarily lucky politician. His first opponent was the haplessScott Morrison;Peter Dutton, his second opponent, was even more of a deadbeat. Now the One Nation/Liberals/National Party cage fight means he can more or less get away with doing what he likes in Canberra and no one takes much notice.

He is a lucky politician despite making lots of mistakes, finding it almost impossible to admit a mistake and disappointing those of us who thought he would be better.

But all is not lost.

The point of this article is not to bury Albanese. It is to encourage him to do something big and courageous while he has the time and the political capital to do it.

All sides of politics agree that intergenerational inequality is an issue that has become a crisis. Even Liberals can see that young adults, unable to afford to live in the middle-class suburbs they were brought up in as children, are a sign of something going seriously wrong in Australian society.

Fellow Independent Australians, it is with our greatest and most sincere regret that we must inform you that Australia is still not a fully and truly independent nation.

Whereas working-class baby boomers who got a university education while it was largely free could aspire to raise their own families in middle-class suburbs, their children and grandchildren are lucky if they can afford a house in the same working-class suburbs the boomers as kids moved out of decades ago. (Suburbs like St Peter's and Marrickville, Footscray and Coburg, Thebarton and Hindmarsh in Adelaide come to mind.)

Alan Kohlers recentarticleon the role that tax policy plays in increasing intergenerational inequality should be required reading for everyone in Albaneses office. Albanese must stop giving so many tax concessions to the capitalist class and use the savings to lower the income tax paid by all workers.

So, here is my solution if Albanese wants to do something significant and courageous:

Expressed this way, it will be an easy political argument to win: taking a luxury from a wealthy minority and giving it back to all workers and pensioners, most of whom have an affordability crisis.

Does Albanese have what it takes to do something transformational like this? Or is he too afraid to take on Murdoch and the defenders of tax breaks for the rich, who, led by Shadow TreasurerTim Wilson, will scream like scalded pigs?

The next Budget is only a few months away. We will soon find out.

DrMichael Galvinis an adjunct fellow at Victoria University and a former media and communications academic at theUniversity of South Australia.

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