Person of the Moment
The prime minister who’d rather not talk about immigration
Anthony Albanese’s answer to the rise of Pauline Hanson is a wager that economic grievance, not migration, is the real battlefield.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese believes that many voters who have drifted from Labor to One Nation can be won back by focusing on economic opportunity and traditional values.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent almost his entire political life battling Australia’s conservatives, since joining the centre-left Labor party at 15 and becoming a Member of Parliament at 30. Yet today, his most serious political challenge comes not from the Liberal-National Coalition, but from Pauline Hanson’s far-right One Nation party.
Albanese has quickly devised a strategy to try to confront the populist surge. The initial signs are that his approach is working – and it may provide valuable guidance for centre-left parties around the world facing populist right-wing surges.
