Sarah Gall is a political data scientist and membership secretary for the UK’s Conservative Friends of Australia. She previously headed up political and policy research for the Prime Minister of Australia.
The end of the year is often a time for reflection upon one’s achievements. And as tempting as it is to mimic Anthony Albanese’s infamous one word media release with an article that simply says “Nothing.”, this author will attempt to sum up the Aussie prime minister’s successes of 2023.
Helpfully, in the lead up to Christmas he released a video wrapping up his year in office (or out of office as it were, given the amount of time he spent jetting overseas, earning him the nickname of ‘Airbus Albo’ by some commentators). In it, Albanese spent just over half of the time on his government’s achievements, stating that their “main focus” has been on delivering cost-of-living relief and taking pressure off inflation.
As examples of the ways in which the Labor Government has reduced cost-of-living pressures for Australians, he first cited cuts to the price of prescription medicines, and increasing the number of days that doctors can prescribe medications from 30 days to 60 days. The government purported that its policy of permitting 60-day prescriptions could save a patient up to £96 per year.
However, upon closer inspection of the Department of Health’s impact analysis, this calculation was not a direct saving to patients but instead based on the estimated time that a patient saves by potentially halving the number of visits to the GP and pharmacy.
Next, Albanese spoke about the appropriately 1.2 million families, who earn less than £281k, receiving cheaper childcare. At first glance, the increased subsidy should be welcome relief for many middle-to-low income families.
Yet according to childcare operators, the new subsidy does not cover this year’s increase in fees at most child care centres.
These fee rises have, ironically, been partly attributed to another Albanese government “achievement”, which granted the increase of award wages by 5.75 per cent; a policy which has driven up costs to childcare operators who have passed on these costs to parents, resulting in no real benefit to families.
The prime minister has also boasted that his government has helped five million households and small businesses receive a rebate on their energy bills of up to £266. But while this may seem like good news for some households, it overlooks two critical factors.
The first is that during the last election, Albanese promised to reduce every Australian’s energy bill by £146. And second, energy prices have been increasing to such an extent that for him to achieve his election promise, the government would need to reduce energy prices by between £420 and £658. All-in-all, Australians are nowhere near better off.
Following the gaslighting of voters on his energy cost achievements, Albanese then looked to the nearly 300,000 students who have enrolled in fee-free vocational training courses; a program aimed at training students in areas of skills-need, such as in the aged care, childhood education, nursing, and construction sectors.
But not all courses are made equal. The government has chosen to provide these fee-free places to state-owned organisations only, watering down the previous skills program set up by the Coalition Government which additionally funded privately-owned, nationally accredited courses.
Given that the quality of courses varies greatly between provider types, a better indicator of achievement for the Albanese Government is not the number of students enrolling in free courses, but the number who firstly complete the course, and secondly go on to be employed in the sectors which currently have skills shortages – data which is yet to become available.
Albanese also spoke about the opening of 58 Urgent Care Clinics and “historic investment” in Australia’s publicly-funded health insurance scheme, Medicare. He claimed that due to his government tripling the incentive payments given to GPs who provide consultations with no out-of-pocket expenses for patients, that it would make it “cheaper and easier” to see a doctor.
But in reality, the rates of GPs providing these types of appointments has dropped every single month under the Albanese Government. And it is not difficult to see why, given that practitioners incur a loss of up to 54 per cent when they rely solely on Medicare payments alone. This can be potentially ruinous when one considers that GP clinics in Australia are generally privately-owned small businesses which are required to pay administrative wages, rent, and rising energy bills.
Finally, the prime minister broadly listed acting on climate change and increasing trade, manufacturing, and jobs; expanding on the latter to say that 624k jobs had been created, which was “the most jobs created by any new government in history”.
While this job creation achievement might sound impressive, the context matters. In addition to the natural increase in the number of jobs created that coincides with population growth, the time in which the Labor Party came into office was during the post-pandemic period which saw millions return to work – a recovery period overseen by the previous Coalition government.
Meanwhile, like a typical Instagram influencer showing only a filtered version of themselves, Albanese glossed over all border security matters, including the recent boat arrivals and his lack of preparedness to prevent dangerous unlawful citizens being released into the community, several of whom have already reoffended within a matter of weeks of being released.
Albanese also avoided any mention of his failed Voice Referendum which, for anyone paying any attention to Australian politics this year, was the true focus of the Labor government. This led to the Coalition accusing him of airbrushing it out of his highlight reel (giving him a new nickname, “Airbrush Albo”).
Given that the so-called achievements listed in Albanese’s video are nothing more than smoke and mirrors, it is not surprising that voters now regard Peter Dutton, the Opposition Leader, as the more experienced, stronger and more decisive leader who has a better understanding of the major issues.
And should voters be surprised? Not really. In 2022, the gaffe-prone Albanese campaigned on a relatively less ambitious reform agenda that had very little substance. This has continued into government, showing an administration that is dysfunctional, incompetent, and has little impact on the issues that currently matter to Australians – namely cost-of-living pressures. As they say, you get what you pay for.