PETER VAN ONSELEN: Why Adam ‘the puppetmaster’ Bandt will decide when Albo’s time is up – and the VERY enticing golden parachute PM will get
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used a media interview this week to boldly declare that if he wins the upcoming federal election, he will serve a full term.
That would make him the oldest prime minister since John Howard lost the 2007 election.
Albo is about to turn 62 before the next elections take place. That would make him 65 years old, if he were indeed to serve a full three-year term.
But beyond age, the real problem is that it is not his decision whether the prime minister gets to serve a full term or not.
Although the recent purchase of a retirement home on the central coast – a $4.3 million waterfront mansion – is not a harbinger of things to come, it is Labor’s party room that will decide how long Albo remains prime minister.
Assuming voters don’t take that decision out of their hands when they cast their ballots on election day.
And the debunking of Albo’s decision about his future doesn’t stop there.
Even though Labor MPs think he is the best person to remain in the top position, if Labor is reduced to a minority government as expected, it will not be government MPs who have the biggest say in Albo’s longevity in The Lodge.
The crossbench will decide the fate of the minority government and the prime minister.
More specifically, the Greens will.
Anthony Albanese announced in a media interview this week that he will serve a full term in office should he win the federal election in the coming months.
More specifically, their leader Adam Bandt will be the one to decide whether or not Albo should retain the premiership.
Because if Bandt and his team decide that a second-term Labor government is not doing enough in the policy areas the Greens care most about, they could withdraw their support for Labor and force the minority government to the polls.
So when Albo sits down for an interview this side of the election, taking the opportunity to announce his intention to serve a full term, making the promise with a heavy supply of salt .
Because it’s not his decision.
Albo has been in parliament since 1996. When he leaves, he will be well looked after under the old, generous parliamentary super arrangement.
The same scheme he protects against other announced pension changes that increase the tax the rest of us have to pay in retirement.
What is good for the goose is not always good for the goose.
In fact, the old parliamentary super program is so generous that Albo will earn more in retirement than he ever did during his political career before becoming prime minister.
And once he turns 65, he will earn more than he would as prime minister, because he won’t have to pay taxes on what he gets.
That should make the pension attractive for a prime minister who is about to remarry and start a new life in a newly purchased house.
Should Albo lead a minority government, Greens leader Adam Bandt will likely be in the box over whether the prime minister stays or leaves.
It is no wonder that Labor MPs fighting to retain marginal seats are so angry at the way Albo has projected a ‘who cares’ attitude in recent months. He comes across as if he already has one foot outside the door of The Lodge.
That’s why his puff interview was necessary — to provide a reset to start this election year in an effort to head off questions about his future.
Although a re-elected Albo would become the oldest Australian prime minister since Howard, he is a relative spring chicken compared to the political class in other parts of the world.
Take the United States for example. Outgoing President Joe Biden is 82 years old and barely functional. Incoming President Donald Trump is already 78 years old and is about to stay in the White House for another four years.
Whether Albo wins the next election and serves a full term in office or not, there is one thing we can certainly be sure of.
He won’t match the ages of Biden and Trump during what’s left of his political career. By then he will hopefully be healthy and happy, ensconced in his waterfront mansion in Copacabana, in retirement.
Perhaps a grumpy old man, somewhat frustrated by the sore eyes of all those ugly cabanas littering the otherwise beautiful beach scene below him.