What is even the point of the Albanese government?

Detailed summary

They're in a deep hole and more dithering won't help.

Too harsh? Probably. I once began a column about the Turnbull government in the same way, and he didn't much like it either.

But seriously, beyond replacing the duplicitous Morrison outfit (achieved in 2022) what do voters understand to be Labor's plan from here - its grand narrative?

More often, we get a kind of political-class patois such as becoming "Australia's natural party of government" - a spurious objective for a progressive reform party, especially one dominated for the first time in its history, by its Left faction. Besides, isn't that "natural party" malarky a goal for Labor rather than the country?

With the thick end of two terms under its belt, is it unreasonable to wonder why its reform story feels so, bitsy and terrestrial? And its lexicon, so cautious and repetitive.

Labor's spruikers will reel off a laundry list of legislative achievements and "saves", some of which were hard-won - on childcare, aged-care, gig-workers, social media, and now promisingly, on artificial intelligence. But others on the list are poor compromises like campaign finance rules, gambling advertising, the anti-corruption commission.

Even if, cumulatively, Labor's reforms amount to sector-by-sector transformation - and that is being generous - it would be a rare voter who could name its elements, much less feel inspired to try.

Meanwhile, insidiously "political" Morrison-era blights like the GST formula doctored to WA's advantage, and the Job-Ready Graduates outrage, remain unaltered.

Rather it is in a deep hole, its hopes buoyed mainly by its 94-seat haul in 2025. Even this, though, is old thinking.

If the historic flip of red states to the Democrats in the US mid-terms conveyed a wider lesson, it was this: make your supporters feel poorer and they will dump you. Gains from the last election count for nothing in the next one.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Canberra Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.