By Frank Calder

Anthony Albanese’s government is a weak, rudderless administration that has squandered the opportunity for real leadership. It has failed on principle, failed on courage, and failed on reform. This is a government that ultimately stands for nothing. Where Hawke and Keating were Labor giants, Albo is a ring wraith.

Not waving, drowning

After nearly three years, it has become clear: Labor is not leading Australia; it is merely occupying office.

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Take the disaster of the Indigenous Voice referendum, a shambles from beginning to end. It is now an open secret in advertising and campaign circles that Albanese was warned—long before the polls turned against him—that the strategy was doomed. High-level advice was ignored. The government plowed ahead regardless, convinced that sincerity and goodwill alone would carry the day. When it failed, they blamed the media, blamed the opposition, blamed misinformation—blamed everyone except themselves. Albanese went missing in action, refusing to take responsibility for his own botched campaign. He bet the house on a referendum with no real plan for how to win it, and when it collapsed under the weight of its own inadequacies, he simply moved on.

NACC Knackered

Then there is the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Remember when Labor promised a “strong, independent watchdog” to clean up Canberra? What we got instead was a toothless tiger, deliberately designed that way in a dirty backroom deal with Peter Dutton’s Coalition. The agreement ensured most inquiries would be conducted in secret, neutering any real accountability before it even began. And when it did finally flex its muscles—by looking into the Robodebt scandal, the greatest abuse of government power against citizens in modern Australian history—it promptly embarrassed itself by declining to refer criminal charges against those responsible. It was only after a wave of public outrage, with some in the community openly questioning whether the Commission was corrupt itself, that it reversed course. This is the hallmark of Albanese’s government: retreat, revise, and hope no one notices.

Bullied by Trump

And then, of course, there is AUKUS—the most expensive and reckless military commitment in Australia’s history. Albanese inherited the Coalition’s disastrous plan to buy nuclear submarines at an astronomical cost, and instead of reassessing, he doubled down. Worse, in a humiliating display of subservience, he has spent recent weeks sucking up to Donald Trump, a man whose return to the White House could see Australia locked into an even more dangerous military entanglement. It is telling that former prime ministers—both Labor and Liberal—have had the guts to call out America’s growing demands on Australian sovereignty. Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull have not hesitated to criticise the US alliance when it threatens our national interest. Albanese, by contrast, acts like a man afraid of his own shadow.

This is not the government Australians voted for. They wanted a leader who would fight for change, who would take risks, who would fix a broken system. Instead, they got a cautious bureaucrat, a man who governs by focus group and flinches at the first sign of pushback. This Labor government is not corrupt in the traditional sense. It is something worse: a government that has no fight, no backbone, and no will to lead. That is the real scandal of Anthony Albanese’s tenure.

If there is one word that sums up his administration it is 'disappointing.' If you prefer several words, it is a gutless meandering whisper.

Despite his handsome property portfolio, he is like the Landlord who won't clean the gutters. He is not even a class traitor because treachery requires some personal courage.

Instead, Australia is led by a hollow man, and governed by a Parliament of Cowards.

Poor fella, my country.

The main image is AI generated, via Grok.ai