Airbus Albo up to His Old Tricks

In what would surely stand as the worst agreement since the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Australian Greens are agitating for a formal coalition with Labor.

Anthony Albanese should enter into a formal coalition with the Greens, sign a public power-sharing deal with Adam Bandt and promote Greens MPs to cabinet if he is forced into minority government at the next election, according to a radical proposal from the nation’s most senior Greens minister.

The Greens are nothing if not opportunists. Fresh from capitalising on endemic left-wing anti-Semitism and making a play for the rusted-on Muslim Labor vote in Western Sydney, they’ve clearly sniffed the growing weakness of the Albanese government. And they’re moving in, like piranhas on a rotting animal corpse.

The suggestion from Mr Rattenbury comes as Mr Albanese responds to the fallout from the voice referendum defeat, international instability in the Middle East – which has revealed deepening cracks within the Labor caucus – and a renewed focus on the cost of living amid speculation the Reserve Bank will hike interest rates at its November meeting […]

ACT Greens leader and ­Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury told The Australian federal Labor needed to rethink its political strategy towards the Greens, arguing it would achieve greater success by dropping its hostility to the minor party and instead working together as partners.

He also said he would be ­“delighted” if federal Greens MPs were promoted to cabinet portfolios, suggesting a new compact between Labor and the Greens was inevitable because the minor party would continue to increase its numbers in the lower house over time.

This is nonsense, of course. The Greens have never been able to lift their vote above the high-water mark of 11%. Its vote share in 2022 was exactly the same as 2019 — and that, despite swathes of voters abandoning both of the major parties. The Greens’ vote has barely moved in a decade.

Notably, the last major shift in the Greens’ vote was when it plummeted by more than 3% in 2013.

Which just coincidentally happened in the wake of a power-sharing agreement with a minority Labor government.

And using the ACT as an example is hardly going to convince anyone.

Mr Rattenbury said the ACT “parliamentary and governing agreement” had worked well and could serve as a useful template for a similar power-sharing deal between Labor and the Greens at the national level if Mr Albanese were forced into minority government. “I think it could. In the sense that having a structure, I think it helps the politics work.”

The Australian

Except that, as the Voice referendum showed, Canberra is the Very Special Kid of Australian politics. The purpose-built ivory tower of Australia’s taxpayer-funded Brahmin class is out of step with the rest of the nation in almost every respect.

“But it worked in Canberra” is the most embarrassing argument Rattenbury could possibly make.

The scary part, though, is that Albanese may be desperate enough to take it seriously, as his government collapses around his ears.

His latest spate of overseas trips is only deepening the perception that “Airbus Albo” isn’t serious about the job he fell into.

Anthony Albanese says he is not embarking on international trips “for the sake of it” and must engage on the world stage to advance Australia’s strategic interests and address global inflationary pressures fanned by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Explaining is losing, Albo.

The fact remains that it’s sticking in Australian voters’ craws, to watch their PM constantly jetsetting around the world. Literally Albanese’s first act as PM was to head off overseas. In just the next six weeks, he’s off on no less than five more overseas jaunts.

Meanwhile, the country is in some serious shit, mostly of the Labor government’s making. No matter what excuses Albanese makes.

As economists forecast a 13th rate hike in 18 months when the Reserve Bank meets on Melbourne Cup day, amid stubborn services inflation, higher petrol prices and historically low unemployment, Mr Albanese said “a lot of the inflationary pressure is because of global factors”.

The Australian

Which is a blatant lie. The inflationary pressure is coming from turbocharged mass immigration (Labor’s doing), the concomitant housing crisis (thus also Labor’s doing), and skyrocketing energy prices (Labor’s doing, thanks to its demented “Net Zero” policies). And the PM who refuses to answer questions on domestic issues while overseas can’t turn around and claim to be working on domestic issues while he’s flitting around the globe.

Albanese was able to pull off a divide-and-rule gambit by subjecting Australia to a year of divisive squabbling over his Voice referendum. But, with the “referendum on identity politics” forcefully repudiated by Australians, Albanese is left with nothing.

So, he’s pissing off overseas again.

Voters aren’t going to see it any clearer than that.