Labor’s Voice referendum may be heading for failure, but potential post-referendum pitfalls are not confined to the Albanese government.
. “It’s one of the great Australian songs,” the prime minister told the ABC, and “a road song for long trips”.
A more likely No majority result will trigger a pile-on of “I told you so’s” by leading Voice critics likePotentially more concerning for Albanese is a likely post-failed referendum outbreak of harsh criticism within Labor circles about the conduct of the pro-Voice campaign. Clearly a No result would shake the government. Post referendum, economic headwinds, including recession, plus the bonus of political scandals like the “Qantas affair” would bring home the electoral political bacon, according to an aspirational scenario doing the rounds of more excitable opposition figures.
A common comparison point made about the Hawke-Keating government versus Albanese-Chalmers is that the former presided over the opening up of the Australian economy whereas there is no overarching reform vision in the current government. The Hawke government was elected in 1983 in Labor’s greatest electoral triumph since 1943 when John Curtin secured such a stunning victory the result virtually destroyed the then United Australia Party. Under Hawke, Labor won 75 seats, while the Coalition was left with 50 in a then 125-member House of Representatives.
But Albanese’s maladroit handling of the Voice referendum campaign and the Qantas scandal have highlighted emerging chinks in his political make-up. He lacks the charisma and rhetorical force of a Bob Hawke, or Gough Whitlam’s verbal armoury.
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