Prime minister takes off as midterm headwinds hit at home

The Voice will be a devastating loss. Questions will be asked about the prime minister’s judgment and ability to bring the country with him.

Typically, when the parliamentary calendar is set, the dates of all of the above are known, so there is no clash. Not this year, it seems. And being away while chaos is unfolding at home makes it all the worse, especially when the frequency of overseas travel is starting to be noted by grumpy talkback radio listeners and the focus groups.

While the opposition understands and supports the international commitments, it doesn’t mind pushing the button now and then.

“The prime minister is off overseas on another overseas flight, and you had this minister, this minister, Mr Speaker, who refuses to answer questions in his absence,” said Peter Dutton on Wednesday as a dissembling Transport Minister Catherine King came under fire over the Qantas debacle.

It is mind-boggling that the government still cannot explain in 30 words or less why it blocked a request by Qatar Airways for extra flights into Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Everything about its response, including rushing forward the aviation green paper on Thursday, reeks of panic. It gives every indication it is prepared to haemorrhage political support and be accused of running interference for the nation’s most complained about company, Qantas, rather than be up front.

Before he left on Tuesday, Albanese told his caucus that for the first time since the election, the government was experiencing pushback after a pretty good run during its first 15 months in office.

This is to be expected. All new governments hit headwinds in the middle of their first term.

Blowback from business

Indeed, when John Howard was called in to give a pep talk to deflated Liberals after the May 2022 election loss, he said circumstances would determine whether the Albanese government succeeded or failed.

Pointing to the travails that beset his own first term in office, Howard noted every first-term government since that of Gough Whitlam went backwards at their next election.

It’s a sobering statistic for a government with a three-seat majority.

Albanese’s mention of pushback was a reference to the blowback from the business community – small, large and medium – over the second wave of industrial relations reforms unveiled on Monday, but it is much broader than that.

Labor went to the election promising “renewal not revolution” and “safe change”.

That has changed. As Albanese also told caucus: “We are in government to make a difference, not to take up space.” And that means fights on multiple fronts.

As a rule of thumb, the local pharmacist is not somebody one would normally associate with rage and abuse.

Yet, on Monday, in unprecedented scenes inside the House of Representatives, about 200 pharmacists who had come to Canberra to protest the government’s 60-day prescription rule, erupted in anger as Health Minister Mark Butler dismissed their concerns about their livelihoods, saying the cost to the consumer was what mattered.

Normally demure chemists who would otherwise have been behind the counter advising Beryl Stringbag about which brand of haemorrhoid cream was best, were yelling and cursing at the government, some shaking fists and giving the middle finger, as they were marshalled out by security.

Regardless of the merits or otherwise of their case, there was nothing confected or stage-managed about the anger. It was visceral.

Apart from the myriad business and industry groups now ranged against the government, the parliament, too, has turned feral. The Greens, who were largely supportive of Labor’s agenda for the first year, are now using their power to grandstand for their own electoral purposes.

Inability to legislate will hurt

They continue to refuse to pass legislation for the Housing Affordability Future Fund while making ambit claims on rents, and are now making demands in return for their support to lift the taxes on high-balance superannuation accounts and to increase the revenue collected by the petroleum resources rent tax.

Nor will the Senate roll over and have its tummy tickled over the omnibus bill of industrial relations changes, as it did last year when it waved through the first tranche before Christmas. It has already delayed the legislation until next year.

It doesn’t hurt a government to be arguing for its policy agenda but eventually an inability to legislate that agenda does begin to do damage.

The government needs a win, but there’s no obvious one on the horizon. The Indigenous Voice to parliament will be a devastating loss if, as the polls indicate, the October 14 referendum fails. Questions will be asked about the prime minister’s judgment and his ability to bring the country with him.

Albanese will be home on Monday morning after an all-night flight for another parliamentary week,

Between then and the end of the year, he has four more overseas trips – including having to twice visit the United States because the White House would not schedule the state visit to coincide with APEC in San Francisco in November.

The state visit, which is nothing more than a consolation offered by President Joe Biden for having to cancel his trip to Sydney in May for the Quad, comes a fortnight after the referendum. It will also cause the prime minister to miss another week of parliament.

It’s going to be an interesting vibe by Christmas.