Global Courant
SYDNEY – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has proven to be spectacularly popular since he was elected a year ago, but his political honeymoon seems to be drawing to a close.
Albanian faces a series of mounting challenges, including allegations that a senior minister has misled Parliament, as well as concerns over whether his economic policies are exacerbating the country’s high inflation.
His bid to hold a referendum to recognize Australia’s Indigenous people in the Constitution also looks disturbing as public support for the proposal is rapidly fading.
Since leading the Labor Party to victory against the Liberal-National Coalition in May last year, Mr Albanese has enjoyed unusually high approval ratings – a reflection of his steadfast leadership and lack of serious scandals or mistakes.
Newspoll’s latest poll, conducted between May 31 and June 3, showed Labor with a decisive lead of 55 to 45 per cent over the coalition. Mr Albanese was voted Prime Minister-elect by 55 percent of voters, compared to 28 percent for Coalition leader Peter Dutton and 17 percent unbound.
But there are increasing signs that Mr Albanese’s popularity may have reached its peak.
In recent days, the Prime Minister, who prides himself on his integrity, has been forced to defend Chancellor of the Exchequer Katy Gallagher over claims she misled Parliament in 2021. Coalition official days before the claim was made public, and that she was trying to use that information to politically harm the Coalition.
Ms Gallagher told Parliament on Tuesday she was aware of the allegation days before it became public in 2021 but did “absolutely nothing” with the information.
The saga has dominated the headlines in recent days and has attracted Mr Albanese, who has vigorously defended Mrs Gallagher. He said on Tuesday she had exceptional integrity and accused the coalition of fabricating a “outlandish conspiracy theory”.
But the incident, while obscure, has raised the first serious questions about the integrity of the government.
Separately, Mr Albanese’s economic record has come under the spotlight over concerns that his support for wage increases threatens to fuel inflation. This criticism followed the surprise decision by the Reserve Bank (RBA), Australia’s central bank, last week to raise interest rates due to persistently high inflation. The interest rate now stands at 4.1 percent, up from 0.1 percent in May 2022.
Until last week, Mr Albanese had largely avoided blame for the rising rates that began before he was elected. But RBA Governor Phillip Lowe has warned that high wages — which Albanian favors — could fuel inflation, though he also pointed to other key factors driving interest rates, such as international inflation and rising house prices.
Perhaps sensing that Labor could soon incur the public’s wrath over rising rates, Mr Albanese last week took a none-too-subtle jab at Dr. Lowe. Asked about his government’s recent erroneous forecast that interest rates would remain below 4 per cent, the prime minister replied by criticizing Dr Lowe’s gloomy 2021 forecast that interest rates would remain at a historic low of 0.1 per cent until 2024 would stay. prediction was “not as incorrect as the one that said there would be no increases until 2024”.
He now faces a difficult choice of whether to take Dr. Lowe’s term as governor later this year. Replacing him would mean putting even more of the government’s stamp on the economy and being blamed for future rate hikes.
