Politics

It is now so blindingly obvious that we confused information with wisdom, immediacy with knowledge. None of us are wiser because we google what we then accept as facts. None of us are truly more attached to strangers because we can use social media to snap ill-thought-through views back and forth.

Fresh from the papal inauguration in Rome, and after Leo XIV blessed the prime minister’s late mother’s rosary beads at his request, Anthony Albanese could be excused for thinking God is on his side.

The memes began with, ‘We need to talk.’ Then the internet lit up with a flood of break-up staples … ‘We’ve grown apart.’ ‘We want different things.’ And of course, frighteningly, ‘I think we should start seeing other people.’ By Thursday, the 80-year relationship could be best described as ‘off again, on again’. What does this all mean?

Unfortunately, the old campaign funding laws mean we need to wait several months for details of the money involved in this month’s election. The promised real-time exposure will make a significant difference in the future. Voters will know where the money is coming from and where it’s being spent as the election campaign unfolds.

I will turn 93 in October. On the balance of probabilities, the federal election of May 3, 2025, will be my last. Going into the poll, I predicted this would be the last victory for a hegemonic party: a small majority for Labor, with the possibility of a hung parliament. I was far too cautious.

Politics shouldn’t be like this in Australia. We have a vision of the democratic process being joyful – of democracy sausages and primary school bake sales – but we’re on the edge, in some respects. We must do better to protect the process, to protect candidates and to protect voters.

Ley has one definite thing going for her: she is not Peter Dutton … A Labor campaign strategy document produced for Dutton’s seat of Dickson listed his negatives in the electorate, with No. 1 being he was not liked.

The same old questions are asked again – ‘how can the Liberal Party rebuild?’ It’s hard to know where to start. The answers are: by addressing their economic policy vacuum; their anti-women, pro-nuclear, anti-renewables, anti-equality stances; their negative and divisive culture wars. None of this is likely to happen soon. Better to turn our focus to harnessing the power of the community independents.

Colleagues have no doubt the prime minister has seared into his brain the ephemeral nature of success and the need to continue showing the same focus and discipline that has seen Labor deliver a similar drubbing to the opposition as the one meted out by Howard in ’96 and Tony Abbott in 2013.

Dutton built his leadership on a revamp of the Abbott–Credlin disaster, pursuing negativity and divisiveness on every issue and seeking to undermine the credibility of Albanese and his government.