WEBVTT - What did Albanese achieve this year? 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:05.880 I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven AM. This year, 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:10.920 Anthony Albanesi promised to make big changes on childcare, of 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.520 many care, on the cost of living. But while the 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.280 government delivered some wins, it also quietly stepped back from 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.520 the fights it didn't want to have on gambling, housing 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:25.160 and corporate power. Today, contributing editor for The New Daily, 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.639 Amy Reymakers looks back on yet another huge year in 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.680 politics and on the deal's labor made, reforms it shelved, 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:38.240 and what that reveals about how this government really works. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:49.440 It's Monday, December twenty nine. Amy, good to see you again. 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.519 Take me back to the start of the year, before 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.160 the election campaign was really in full swing. How did 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.240 Anthony Albanese's year begin. 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.560 Yeah, it seems like a lifetime ago and it's not 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.200 even twelve months. But we started this year knowing that 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.840 an election was coming, but thinking that Labor potentially, at 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.600 least from what the polls were telling us, end up 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:14.040 in minority government. 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.280 Now, there was a. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.200 Story and narrative at the time that the Coalition could 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.320 potentially win government from opposition, that Peter Dutton was going 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:24.520 to pull it off, but. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.200 The polls never actually said that. 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.720 They said that Labor was in trouble, but they always 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.160 said that the coalition was not popular, and you could 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.080 tell that by looking at preferred leader, by looking at 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.280 the coalition's primary vote, that sort of thing. But there 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.920 was a real sense that the Albanese government was in trouble. 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.839 They had recently lost the Voice referendum, which had taken 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.560 a lot of wind out of their sales. Anthony Albanesi 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.440 really started battening down the hatches after that started coming. 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.600 It seemed like they were a government without answers when 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.120 it came to deal with inflation, dealing with the cost 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:06.080 of living, dealing with issues in service delivery for Australia, 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.880 the issues in housing. It just seemed like whatever hope 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.160 had come from the twenty twenty two election had completely 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.400 and utterly dispersed by the twenty twenty five election. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:20.960 So they got off to a slow start, but by 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.880 the time the campaign came around, they got themselves out 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.399 of that slump. If we talk about the campaign itself, 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.960 there was a lot of holding up of Medicare cards 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.880 in speeches. What did that signify about the type of 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:35.639 campaign Labor van. 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:39.000 Yeah, it was very much a back to basics Labor 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:44.679 campaign and Labor sees medicare as one of its historical successes. 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.160 And so what they did was they crafted this policy 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:52.400 of saying, we're going to increase the bulk billing rates 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.320 by you know, paying private practices a certain amount extra 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:57.960 so that they can bulk bill more. 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.560 We will offer every gig practice a new incentive payment 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.600 to volk bill. This payment will go to every doctor 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.000 in every practice that commits to volve billing every patient 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:12.040 every time. 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.600 If you looked behind that policy, it was essentially useless 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:21.000 for most people's general practices because the hoops that they 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.679 had to jump through did not make it economically viable 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:29.400 for themselves to continue running practices. But the government knew 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.400 that it had this headline figure that it could use 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.760 to say, we're investing x amount into medicare. We're going 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:37.160 to increase bolk billing. 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.960 This will mean three times as many GP practices fully 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:47.000 bulk billing. It will provide around four thousand, eight hundred 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.920 medical practices across Australia with the security that they need 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:53.880 to vulk build every visit. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.520 And then it had the amazing luck, happestance or whatever 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.480 you want to call of Trump coming in with his tariffs, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.440 and one of his tariffs, one of the fights that 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.120 he wanted to have was over Australia's PBS, which is 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:17.480 of course the government subsidization of everyday medications for eligible Australians. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.400 It's not surprising that there is a push and some 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:27.640 opposition to the PBS, but let me be very clear 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:34.120 and explicit, the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme is not for sale. 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.480 And that was a fight that the Albanesi government was 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:44.400 very happy to have because every time Anthony Albanezi held 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.400 up that Medicare card and said, you know, I am 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.560 fighting for you, I am fighting for Medicare, they were 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.800 able to say we're putting more money into health and 0:04:54.200 --> 0:05:00.000 we're going to fight Trump to defend it for you. 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.080 And that worked particularly well because there was all cir 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:08.600 concerns within the electorate that Peter Dutton was very trumpy 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:10.880 and when it came to a lot of his views 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:16.400 and particularly around cultural stuff. So that defense of Medicare 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:20.120 in particular was something that really rang through quite strongly. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.359 Yeah, it was, and I mean, like I suppose my 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.640 contribution to the campaign was accidentally coming up with Timu Trump, 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:32.839 which you know, it landed because it rang true to 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.560 so many Australians because Peter Dutton had always been the 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:38.560 hard man. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.480 Of the coalition, that is the role that he had adopted. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.400 He was the you know, like have a good weekend lefties, 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.560 you know, type of leader who was very open about 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.400 the fact that he was strong on national security and 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.520 that meant cracking down on minorities and crime and all 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.240 the rest of it. And by the time the election 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:04.160 came round, that an absolute negative for the coalition and 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.240 that was one thing Labor had counted on. 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.080 How Teama Trump didn't make it into the Coora dictionaries 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:12.320 beyond me. But that's another thing. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:13.640 Should I mean the word of the year? 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:14.120 Damn it. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.800 Anyways, if we returned to the election, what did the 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.160 government promise during that campaign? 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.480 It was very much a business as. 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.799 Usual but we will try and make things a little 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.760 bit easier campaign. So the main things that they were promising, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.640 apart from Medicare and we're all sick of that Medicare 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.960 card being held up, was cutting student debts. They promised 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.960 to cut about twenty percent from student hex and help debt. 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.520 A re elected Labor government will take twenty percent off 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.440 student debt for everyone who has won. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.159 And also dealing with housing. 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.200 Our five percent deposit plan will be open to every 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.080 Australian looking to buy their first home. It will be 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.159 available for homes valued all the way up to the 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.560 average price in every city and region, and you won't 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.880 have to pay a single dollar in mortgage insurance. 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:12.280 Our government will cover it, even. 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.080 Though we've already seen policies like that, you know, increase 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.040 the price of housing at least according to the experts 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.680 who watch the housing market, and the fact that the 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.679 Heck's cut has maybe helped students, but it hasn't actually 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.040 done anything to address the cost of degrees that were 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.040 increased under the Morrison government for a lot of students, 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.480 particularly if you're studying arts or humanities. 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.840 It was enough that it seemed like the government were 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:38.640 doing something. 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.800 If you were to name one thing the government's done 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.640 that would count as a big win for them, what 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:46.240 would you suggest it would be? 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.200 Yeah, so, I mean the government would would say that 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.840 it's social media ban has been a massive win for 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.000 it and it has you know, a lot of parents 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:57.560 on side and a lot of. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:07:59.920 It is a very popular policy. 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.920 But then you've got experts and young people saying this 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.240 is not going to work, and you know, we're going 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.559 to see the wheels fall off this in another couple 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.360 of years. But right now the government is getting glowing 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.480 international coverage over this. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.760 The government would consider its environmental laws. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.960 To be a massive win because that's something that they, 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.960 you know, commentators including me, said would be very difficult 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:23.920 for them to pass. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.320 They managed to get it through with the Greens, which 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.200 means the laws are not as bad as they could 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:29.600 have been. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.160 This isn't a win for the environment, but it's politically 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.600 a win for the government, and this is a government 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.880 that has been winning the politics a lot, but the 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.800 policy is not up to scratch when. 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.600 You consider, you know, people who were hoping. 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.600 For progressive reform or even something that was different than 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.680 the status quo that we've seen for the last few decades. 0:08:56.000 --> 0:09:00.560 Coming up, why twenty twenty six will defy In Albanesi's legacy, 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:15.720 Anthony Albanesi wants his legacy to be universal childcare inn Ee, 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.920 where we have seen the horrific outcomes of a broken 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:23.360 childcare system. What has the Albanese government done to reform 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:23.920 the sector? 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:25.720 So I do think that. 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:30.360 Anthony Albanesi is being very legitimate when he says that 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:31.640 he wants to create a. 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.800 Universal childcare system. 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.320 And what that would mean is that we would consider 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.000 childcare the same way that we consider medicare or the 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.840 same way we consider public education, in that it shouldn't 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:47.000 cost too much and it's open to know, you know, most. 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:48.599 Australians without an issue. 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.480 So the solution to making childcare universal in Australia is 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.559 for the government to take over it, for the government 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.360 to control it, and that's not what's going to happen. 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.360 So what they're trying to do is retrofit all of 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:07.880 these little fixes around a private system that is already 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.920 pretty broken. So the first thing that they did was, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.720 you know, they increased the childcare subsidy. The idea was 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.360 that if it's universal, it is open to everybody, you know, 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:19.920 no matter how much you earn. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.120 But that just meant that childcare centers increase their fees. 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.720 So every single thing that they've done, they've had to 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:31.040 then retrofit another fix to try and ensure that their 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.960 overall intentions are carried out. But then we had, of course, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.959 the horrendous stories as revealed by the ABC about all 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.280 of the dangers in the childcare sector, how a lack 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.960 of regulation has left it open to predators, and so 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.680 now you're seeing states and the federal government have to 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.680 retrofix safety regulations around that, which, of course in a 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.520 private system is going to end up increasing costs. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:58.760 So what can they do. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.200 They can spend a lot more, which it doesn't look 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.959 like they want to do in this inflationary environment because 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.520 every single time the government is spending money on something, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.360 be it infrastructure, be it pay rises, be it whatever, 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.880 they're then accused of adding to inflation. And then that 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.840 conversation takes off and so we never really get to 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.080 the nub of the problem, and. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.160 So we just go round and round and round. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.040 And this is not something that I think Anthony Albanezi 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.360 can achieve even in a decade. This is going to 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.800 be something that would take decades to fix, and ultimately 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.000 it would be bringing childcare into the public sector for 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.040 a government to control, and they're not going to do that, 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.160 So it's a lofty goal. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.920 One of the fights that Labour seems extremely hesitant to 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.920 have is on gambling reform. Their own reviews said the 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.720 ban online gambling ads years ago. They haven't done it 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.720 and they've been under pressure from the cross bench on 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.160 the all year, so why would they take it on. 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:04.240 I think it. 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.720 Really speaks to one of the core issues with this government, 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.080 which is its incrementalism. And Sean Kelly describes it in 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:17.520 his latest quarterly essay The Good Fight as a government 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.559 that doesn't want to offend anyone, a government that doesn't 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.040 actually want to have the fights. And it doesn't seem 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.200 like the government wants to have the fight with the 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.880 gambling industry, even though they have all of the social 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.640 license in the world to do this. They have so 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.839 much political capital to do this. Nobody actually loses, and 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:37.720 in terms of some of the arguments that have been 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.640 thrown up, they are actually very easy fixes for that. 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:42.800 One of the arguments we've heard is that it's going 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.160 to make free to air media or you know, what's 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.240 left of Australia's legacy media really suffer because of the 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.240 lack of advertising. Experts have pointed out that you could 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.400 just put a levy on gambling companies in Australia and 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.960 that would you know, pay for the loss of gambling advertising. 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.400 The Guardian had stopped accepting gambling advertising, and The Guardian 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:04.880 is still doing quite well. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:05.960 It is possible. 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:10.199 So this isn't a fight with anyone except the very 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:15.040 vested interests of gambling companies and some media companies who 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.360 want to continue seeing that revenue. And so what we're 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:23.280 seeing is a government choosing its priorities to stay in power, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.000 and the way that they're doing that is by not 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.840 having the fights, not offending any big interests. 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.440 If we cast down on forward to this time next year, Amy, 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.600 what do you expect from the Albanesi government, What do 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:38.880 you actually expect from them in twenty twenty six, and 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.520 what will we be talking about this time next year. 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.440 Guy, It's so impossible, isn't it, Because when you look 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.640 at the year that has just been, you're just kind 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:50.079 of like that was only a year. 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.080 It feels like a decade, you know. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.160 But looking at the landscape more broadly, I would expect 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.840 this government to make any sort of reform moves it's 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.360 going to make next year, probably around the budget time, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.000 and I would say that by the middle of next 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:12.080 year we'll have a pretty good indication of how Labor 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.960 starts to feel about its leadership, about its incrementalism, and 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.280 about its future. Because on the numbers, the chances of 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.160 the coalition winning are about as high as me becoming 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.360 a bond Girl. But there is the chance that you 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:33.800 start to see third parties, independents and disruptors like One 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:38.880 Nation start to chip away at Labor seats or seats 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:40.000 that Labour thinks. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.120 That they should be holding. 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.040 That's when we're going to start to see is Labor 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.000 going to transform, Is it going to be the party 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.960 of reform, Is it going to try and set Australia 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.720 up for the next ten years, or is Anthony Albanesi 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:58.040 going to continue sacrificing Reform to be what he calls 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.280 the natural party of government, thereby consigning Labor to. 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:04.200 Know a pretty predictable future. 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.160 Well, Amy, it's been one hell of a year and 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.840 despite any sort of Bond Girl ambitions you may have had, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.200 you do have a license to kill and you've killed 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.040 this year. So thanks so much for coming on and 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:15.280 speaking to us throughout the year. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.320 Thank you as have you guys, You've been incredible. 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.240 Tomorrow on the show, we're taking an in depth look 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.200 at another of the big political stories of twenty twenty five, 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.960 the wipeout of the Australian Greens after a terrible election 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.280 result where they lost three out of four Lowerhouse MPs. 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.800 The Greens had some soul searching to do. Now, more 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.160 than six months out from the election, and under the 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.600 leadership of Larissa Waters, they're beginning to show some signs 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.160 of what they'll do next. I'm Daniel James. This is 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.080 seven AM. Thanks for listening.