Analysing Anthony Albanese's campaign launch speech
On Sunday December 5th, Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese made a speech at the Wests Ashfield Leagues Club in Sydney. Delivered just three days after Federal Parliament had risen for the final time in 2021, it was widely regarded as launching Labor’s campaign for the looming federal election, which will be held in either March or May next year.
In this post, I want to isolate and analyse the key lines in Albanese’s speech and share some thoughts about its writing and how it fits into Labor’s broader campaign strategy.
The video of Albanese delivering the speech is here and the full transcript is here. The excerpts below are taken from the transcript.
Disclosure: I have been a speechwriter for two Labor politicians. Therefore, I can hardly claim neutrality. But I strive for objectivity.
Key lines
Note: these excerpts were delivered in order, although not generally back-to-back. The full speech is a good deal longer.
Since Federation, we have been a united continent. However, we are not immune to the forces of division, whether they are driven by ideology or political opportunism. That is the cynical space in which Scott Morrison operates. He chooses to divide. He chooses to play politics. He chooses to pit people against each other. To pit state against state. These last two years have been tough, but Scott Morrison has only made the burden greater.
Albanese pivots to the Prime Minister very early in the speech – according to the written transcript, the line about Federation is the 10th line in the speech. Is this a smart strategy? I think so. It’s fairly well-established by polling (and Albanese and his staff would have access to internal polling) that Morrison’s character will be under the microscope at the next election.
By virtue of being Prime Minister during a time of unprecedented governmental presence in people’s lives, and by adopting such a distinctive political persona (the daggy blue-collar suburban dad), there aren’t very many Australians without an opinion about Morrison. Not as many have strong views about Albanese. The campaign will be his opportunity to introduce himself to the nation, but in the meantime, it makes sense to continually ask the character question of the Prime Minister.
Because in Australia, in tough times, every one of us has to “hold a hose”.
The rarely spotted Albo zinger?!
Now we all want to put the past two years behind us. To do that, we need to put this Government behind us.
Not only is this a neat little rhetorical construction, but it is the first appearance of the framing which undergirds the speech: that the Morrison Government belongs to the past, and that Labor is ready to confront the challenges facing Australia.
As author, columnist and former Labor adviser Sean Kelly mentions in his latest Sydney Morning Herald column, that framing – Labor is the future, the Liberals are the past – is a well-worn trope of Federal Labor leaders attempting to win government from opposition. So Albanese is not blazing a new trail – but his approach worked for Gough Whitlam and Kevin Rudd.
Australians can choose a Labor government alive to the opportunities of this moment – and ready with a plan to seize them.
This is directly connected in purpose to the line above: it’s all about establishing that a) Australia faces substantial challenges and opportunities; b) the current Government is not equipped to meet the moment; and c) Labor has a plan for Australia’s future. That it has vigour and purpose.
Or … Australians can vote for another three years of division and inaction. To enter a second decade of stagnant wages that don’t keep up with rising bills. A second decade of vandalism inflicted on Medicare and the NDIS. A second decade of rorts, waste and dishonesty. A second decade of Australia falling behind the world on everything from education and equality for women, to renewable energy and infrastructure. A government with nothing left but scare campaigns. All this is on the line in 2022.
In any speech like this, it’s very important to establish the stakes: just how much is on the line? Albanese tries to capture it here: political dysfunction and endemic rorting, a bad deal for workers, the undermining of cherished public institutions, and a failure to do enough on education, equality, climate and infrastructure. Mistakes made by a rudderless and incapable Government.
Divided among themselves, and attempting to divide you. Saying anything. Not doing much. A leader whose words have become meaningless. A Prime Minister who has no regard for what he said yesterday, so you should have no regard for what he says today.
Here, Albanese once again puts Morrison’s character under the microscope. I think this is wise – but I also think that he could have gone further. The media, the Parliament and indeed many Labor MPs are shedding their reluctance to use the l-word (liar) – yet Albanese doesn’t use the words liar or lie once in this speech. I think it’s a slightly missed opportunity to further pin Morrison on what many people regard as his greatest character and leadership flaw.
We possess the minerals and materials needed to build a lithium battery, like the ones that power electric vehicles. We should have a homegrown battery industry - and this Fund will back it.
Albanese devotes some lines in the speech to articulating his vision for the future of manufacturing in Australia. It’s nothing that we haven’t heard from Labor politicians in recent years: a focus on creating secure jobs by boosting Australian manufacturing. This is that same basic idea expressed in today’s terms: extracting and refining a natural resource (lithium, as compared to coal or iron ore) and then using it to create the batteries that are a critical part of the electric vehicle supply chain. Beyond reaffirming Labor’s support for local manufacturing and local jobs, it also implicitly repeats that earlier message: the Morrison Government is the past, and Labor is the future.
Powering Australia will reduce Australia’s emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 – which will become Australia’s target, keeping us on track for net zero by 2050. We are backing this with the most extensive independent modelling ever carried out for any policy by an Opposition. Our plan has already been backed by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ACTU and a range of community organizations.
Although by now it’s hardly surprising (Labor leadership made peace with business decades ago) I must admit it still feels a little jarring that a Labor campaign launch speech mentions business and employer groups more than unions. It makes pragmatic political sense: show how out-of-touch the Morrison Government is on climate change by mentioning groups that have traditionally been some of the strongest supporters of Liberal Governments. But I can’t help but think that this approach has its own risks.
Over the last decade the Coalition has announced over 20 energy policies and not landed a single one. Business has missed out on certainty, and Australians have missed out on jobs. Labor has announced exactly one energy policy and it is the one we will implement in government.
Hammering the Morrison Government on climate change and energy is a moral necessity and a political opportunity. But kudos to Albanese for again seizing the opportunity for readers/viewers/listeners to make the comparison: Labor has a plan, while the Government is tired, cynical and out of ideas.
Make no mistake. When it comes to skills and knowledge – it is a race. A race for the jobs and prosperity and security of the future. This race can be won - but only if the government steps up and does its part.
It’s always a good strategy to invoke your opponent’s mistakes. (If I’ve inadvertently ripped that from Art of War, then I sincerely apologise.) Here, Albanese walks on solid Labor ground of skills, education and jobs while subtly invoking Morrison’s now infamous “it’s not a race” blunder about the soporific early COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
I may not always be the smoothest talker – but I can promise you I’ll always tell it straight.
Albanese is self-aware enough to acknowledge his occasionally unconvincing public speaking (although I think he actually delivers this speech fairly well) but savvy enough to turn it into an example of his authenticity. Again, the implicit comparison to the Prime Minister, who not everyone would regard as someone who tells it straight, is clear.
I know good government has the power to change lives through skills and education, through secure jobs, through decent health care and affordable housing. I know it. I’ve lived it.
Albanese’s personal story of being raised by his mother and growing up in public housing is genuinely powerful, not to mention a far cry from the typical political leader. Here, he leans on it to enhance the credibility of his appeal: do you want evidence that government can be a positive influence in people’s lives? You’re looking at it.
At the next election, my team and I are asking Australians to choose a new direction for this country. But we are seeking renewal – not revolution.
“Renewal not revolution” is not a line that will make hearts race. It’s this kind of stuff that leads to claims that Labor is deliberately pursuing a modest electoral strategy after a more expansive slate of policies was rejected by Australian voters in 2019. But Albanese and his staff understand that this election is likely to be determined by a handful of marginal seats in NSW, Queensland and WA. Therefore, they’re proposing steering Australia to a better destination rather than mutinying (relevant link).
A country where no-one is held back – and no-one is left behind.
If Labor hadn’t already picked a pithier campaign slogan – A Better Future – then “no-one held back, no-one left behind” would make a decent alternative. It’s pure modern Labor: reward the hard workers and entrepreneurs while also promoting equality of opportunity.
Concluding thoughts
Not even the most passionate speechwriter is claiming that Anthony Albanese’s campaign launch speech will decide the election. Therefore, I think it’s best to treat this speech not as a standalone piece of rhetoric, but instead just one component of what Labor is hoping will be an election-winning strategy. But it is an important part – because it introduces the themes that Labor is likely to emphasise throughout the election campaign.
By my reckoning, here are the main themes canvassed in the speech:
Labor’s readiness to lead and confront the considerable challenges Australia faces – compared to the Morrison Government’s tendency to put division and infighting above the national interest. The future vs. the past.
Labor is a party and movement with values that are complementary to Australian values: fairness, integrity, decency.
A contest of personalities: Albanese (unassuming, plain-spoken, of modest upbringing) – vs. Morrison (dishonest, distracted, dysfunctional).
Labor’s sensible policy agenda, including funding for more TAFE places and an emissions reduction plan supported by industry and employer groups.
In terms of language and delivery, it is a workmanlike speech – but I think that’s the right approach for Albanese. That old aphorism that you campaign in poetry but govern in prose doesn’t apply here. He’ll be campaigning and governing in prose. But it’s part of the Albanese pitch: I’m a decent guy whose sole focus is Australia’s future. I lead a team with a plan. Elect us and we’ll build future industries, scale up the ambition of our emissions reductions targets, and restore integrity and decency to public life after some difficult years. It’s half Dan Andrews, half Joe Biden.
The strategy which this speech forms a key part of – minimising vulnerabilities, emphasising Labor’s readiness to lead, and accentuating the personality differences between Albanese and Morrison – seems to me a solid one. But of course, a great strategy still might not be a winning one. It’s important to not overstate the importance of speeches, or campaigns for that matter. There is always more that is out of the control of any one political party. The outcome of the next election will be determined in a relatively small number of seats and voters, who are not expressing many signs of enthusiasm about either major party, will be making up their minds about many issues, including one (COVID-19) which has never been tested before at the federal level.