Labor under Albanese is neoliberalism’s most effective agent

When Anthony Albanese claimed victory on election night in 2022, he spoke of making Australia a “common ground where together we can plant our dreams”. The moving sentiment, just about the only striking phrase of the election, appeared to indicate that his government would do whatever possible, within the limits all governments face, to restore commonality and common purpose in a nation fractured and directionless after a decade of right-wing misrule. There was hope.

Ha ha, in fact, there wasn’t. Two months or so later, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced that the new government would be continuing and extending existing carbon credits and offsets schemes, turning Australia into a “green Wall Street”. The announcement came hot on the heels of the retention of the stage three tax cuts and the refusal to raise the basic benefits rate, and so was merely seen as part of the Festival of General Disappointment that follows the election of any Labor government. 

Yet the “green Wall Street” announcement was a bit more important than that, because it wasn’t an isolated decision or action. Coming from the mouth of a minister from the “left”, in a government headed by a prime minister from the “left”, it was a programmatic announcement — not merely to the nation but, more importantly, to the party and its core supporters — that this was now a thoroughly neoliberal outfit.