“Albo’s instincts have been most vividly on display in his handling of the Queen’s departure and the constitutional rearrangements to follow,” writes “The Gadfly” columnist ROBERT MACKLIN. 

IT is easy to underestimate Anthony Albanese. Deceptively so.

Scott Morrison certainly did – he was perfectly sure that his “strongman leadership” would bulldoze his opponent into a political grave. No surprises there.

Same goes for Bill Shorten, who believed his factional manoeuvrings would put paid to Albanese’s leadership ambitions, or that he’d cruel his chances by sniping at Shorten’s performance as Opposition Leader.
Wrong again. 

So too, for many of the commentariat (myself included) who thought his own relatively mild-mannered opposition leadership and small-target campaign lacked the pizzazz needed to galvanise a Labor majority. 

And I suspect the Teal reformers also felt that they’d have the political muscle to wag the Albo dog. Indeed, Albo’s real dog, a Cavoodle named Toto, is in many ways a simulacrum [imitation] of its owner – shortish, friendly, but with a snappy self-confidence – and sharp little teeth.

The Teals felt the nip of the Albanese dentition with the surprise announcement of new limits to their staffing even before they took their seats in the parliamentary chamber. He gave them a hearing a few days later but since then their gloss seems to have faded and with it the muscle behind their punch. 

At the same time, the prime minister has lengthened his stride down that Yellow Brick Road with Toto at his heels. His colloquies with international leaders, his double-teaming where necessary with Penny Wong, his adroit handling of the Jobs and Skills Summit, have all gone well.

But his instincts have been most vividly on display in his handling of the Queen’s departure and the constitutional rearrangements to follow. 

Many on the left (myself included) found the blanket coverage of the royal rites of passage overdone, and the high-handed attitude of the British ceremonial planners more than a little precious. 

But Albo, whose republican instincts run deep, made not a single complaint by word nor gesture. Indeed, by following some rare “protocol” – unbeknown to either NZ or Canada – he suspended parliament entirely and declared yet another public holiday.

But it was his instant and decisive announcement that the referendum on the Aboriginal Voice to Parliament would be held in this term of government, while the republic debate would not come to a vote until the next one that really showed his form.

Some of the republican enthusiasts (myself included) might have rushed in and conflated the two. But on reflection they (and I) would have twigged that we were playing right into the hands of the reactionaries. They would have hidden their racism behind a façade of colonial sentimentality and split the nation, even with the execrable Eric Abetz leading the monarchical charge.

As it is, Albo’s decision to join the late Queen’s mourners allows him to mark the end of an era while at the same time earning the respect, and perhaps even the affection, of the generation she symbolised. This will stand him in good stead in the next election and the republican debate to follow.

So where, you have to wonder, did he learn to take such sure steps through that political minefield? Certainly, he’s had a long apprenticeship in the Labor left and earned a Master’s in the parliamentary profession.

But the real answer, I suspect, is hiding in plain sight. Indeed, he told us all where it came from so often that we stopped taking it seriously. We’d heard it all ourselves on that perilous journey through the childhood and adolescent years.

As he grew up in that council house in Camperdown, and long thereafter, he listened to his mother.

robert@robertmacklin.com