r/AustralianPolitics • u/TeaAny1221 Ben Chifley • 8h ago
Patience of Labor MPs is beginning to wear thin as mid-term blues bite
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-18/albanese-labor-mps-mid-term-blues/107272392•
u/Brisssie 7m ago
Having just donated another 11 Million to a Muslim org, he hasn’t learned anything from his polling plummet either…think of all the good that could have done for the homelessness he’s caused. Goooonnnneee 👋
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u/GregLocock 4h ago
So since the start of the Albanese government, many years ago, cost of living fail, housing builds fail, closing the gap fail, defence fail, domestic energy prices fail, rents fail, anti semitism fail, inflation fail, Anti terrorism fail. Quite the record. OK some of that is double counting, and yes, Trump's war on Iran is a small part of inflation. I was idly wondering if there was a breakdown of various factors contribution to CPI, such as increase in number of public 'service' employees (yes they are servicing us), their pay, the various handouts (not pigeon feed like $6M to a golf club), cost of diesel, rents (that is known) and so on. You need the numbers all in one place, not random cherry pecked studies of each factor.
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u/fresh_jorks 2h ago
damn i made it through listing a bunch of shit with the word "fail" on it like that actually reflected what happened without laughing, but then i got to "Trump's war on Iran is a small part of inflation"
hahaha ON bots arent even fuckin trying any more. what happened was the training data exclusively facebook boomers with lead poisoning?
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u/Neelu86 Skip Dutton. 1h ago
You just have to completely ignore that fact the these issues are by some miracle exclusive to Australia. It's easy, just pretend that reality doesn't exist. There's no diesel shortage in any other country on the planet. There's no inflation in any other country on the planet and the U.S fed is going to raise rates next week for no reason whatsoever. No other country on the planet has housing shortages. No other country on the planet has COL problems or rising inequality whatsoever. It's all Albos fault in every single country because every country on the planet uses Australian dollars for trade.
It's easy when you reject reality and only focus on what is two feet in front of your face.
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u/MentalMachine 4h ago
But anxiety about the impact of inflation and rising interest rates is at an all-time high.
And
It's the problems that are of the government's own making that are considered the most infuriating.
And
There is internal anger at Chalmers, disbelief at some of the messaging and concern the government lacks a clear "agenda" for the remainder of the term.
Sums it all up really; hard to be positive (despite the 2pp lead, it must be pointed out) when the economy is gross and you keep making dumb mistakes and there is a sense of a lack of vision/plan for the term.
Albo does seem to be banking on the public seeing how bad the alternatives are, but there is only so long that will work for.
The big question would be how things would look if inflation got sorted - potentially a better buying market for PPOR/first timers and money not going into NG-ing established homes should be a great environment, but the inflation issue is wipimg out all the gains and making everyone angry.
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u/fresh_jorks 2h ago
and you keep making dumb mistakes
except the characterisation of the current need to restrain spending in the article as a "problem of Labor's own making" is absolutely fucking moronic, as is the idea that the ato credit card shit is meaningful at all
this narrative going around is purely a media circlejerk. note the way this douche couldnt provide a single example of labor ministers actually displaying "frustration" or discontent in any way.
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u/DerangedLaborShill 4h ago
Feels really frustrating seeing article after article blaming spending for inflation with literally zero mentions of all the global conditions that we had zero control over that led us here. It's like the media has memory holed that global pandemic and that war in the middle east. Obviously we should control what we can and if that means cutting spending then fair enough, but it's not just a "problem of their own making" as this article puts it
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u/-bigSALAD- 21m ago
At this point it absolutely is a problem of their own making, since they’ve had 4 years and plenty of opportunities to do meaningful things to stem or avoid the worst of it, and chose not to upset their corporate donors.
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u/Elvenoob Socialist Alliance 1h ago
But see the media corporations making these articles are doing the same playbook as every other corporation; "This latest crisis has increased costs for us, which lets us increase prices by more and our shareholders pocket the difference"
And when you're participating in the problem, inventing a fake other problem for people to get mad at buys you and your mates more time to rake in the $$$
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u/MentalMachine 4h ago
Inflation was legit ticking up before Iran; could have been temporary and was just about to go back down before Iran locked it in, but it doesn't matter now.
Iran is making a bad situation worse, but things were slipping out of being "good" and it means there are a lot less options now to deal with Iran effects.
Part of the issue is (imo) Labor not doing enough of the hard reforms/putting them off for too long, and now is a challenge to do more fix to the system (eg CGT/NG) now thanks to inflation - eg can you imagine the shitstorm if they started talking about CGT/NG changes now after multiple rate rises?
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u/fresh_jorks 2h ago
no it wasnt. it was mostly steady (with a dip) since oct 2025, jumped up in march, then steadily fell back down before a smaller jump in august (which is where the data trail ends)
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u/Jozfus 4h ago
Before these global events inflation was already climbing, its just a convenient excuse. Not to say it hasn't had an impact.
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u/Maro1947 Policies first 4h ago
"An impact" when it's causing global supply chain issues for fuel and goods is just a tiny bit hyperbolic
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u/Jozfus 4h ago
Labour costs in this country are insane due to government projects pushing up private sector prices
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u/Tw4Mn02 Libertarian Party 1h ago
Do you really want labour costs to go down? Willingly wanting your wages to go down is shooting yourself in the foot. It's not a zero sum game and if the government focuses more on productivity you can have real wage growth and inflation coming down.
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u/Jozfus 1h ago
I don't think you're understanding what I'm saying. Government splashes cash pushing all prices up, wheelchairs quadrupled in price when NDIS arrived. Similar happens with cost of trades because of the favourable rates government projects pay.
Edit - the staff aren't the ones profiting
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u/Maro1947 Policies first 4h ago edited 2h ago
Where one is a component, but you call another component irrelevant....
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u/Jozfus 4h ago
Quote me directly saying another component was irrelevant? You're making it up in your head.
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u/Maro1947 Policies first 2h ago
An impact... sophistry to make it look smaller than it is
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u/Jozfus 2h ago
So not irrelevant.
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u/Maro1947 Policies first 2h ago
Look at you fingers poised on the alert response!
"I'll just step back from my initial gambit"
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u/DerangedLaborShill 4h ago
Im sure youre right, im not an economist so i dont have much idea. I just feel like it has to be worth a mention in articles about the problem
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u/karma3000 Paul Keating 5h ago
My theory on this is that the political donors who donate to both the ALP and LNP didn't like the CGT changes, and are having a bit of a whinge.
ALP members should stay the course and keep delivering for Australians at large.
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u/-bigSALAD- 20m ago
ALP members should demand their party stop taking bribes from these corporate donors so the party can actually work for the people
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u/maddimouse 4h ago
Yep. Personally I'd rather they deliver more and better (which they absolutely could do; see several things they could have trivially passed with the greens but instead chose to reject or push forward without beneficial amendments), but overall they are keeping things from being worse, with some incremental improvements here and there.
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u/qualitystreet 5h ago
This is a very thin article by Clare Armstrong, not a single quote to support her claim. Rather a light run through of some issues.
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u/GuyFromYr2095 Swing voter 6h ago
The main issue with Albo and Jim is the growing perception of their stubbornness to ram legislations through, then backpeddling. It hardly instils confidence whether they know what they're doing.
Million dollar question is whether their reputation is beyond repair before the next election
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u/RedditUser628426 6h ago
Couldn't agree more:
It's like this:
We won't do it
Oh we're doing it
Oh we didn't do it right
Oh we not going to acknowledge we didn't do it right
Oh we fixed it
I mean small example is ATO credit card thing. We got people on $500K salaries in APS but it takes Albo's mate to send him an SMS to sort this out
Or this "widows tax" thing I mean why does some random senator (pretty sure he doesn't have a PhD in anything unlike Treasurer) have to find this and advocate for it when it's been past so many people in Canberra.
Family trust well it's the same. Yes fsckers are misusing family trusts and we need to fix it. But many small/family business are NOT misusing them but they just keep going. I wonder what advice they're ignoring here.
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u/vladesch 5h ago
Fixing housing by changing CGT but then applying it to investments in productivity ie shares.
Shares were not an issue. We want investment in industry. Don't fix what isn't broken.
Now we have killed by off incentive to risk starting businesses because govt will be taxing it more.
This will kill off our own industry over time. As if it wasn't already dying.
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u/karma3000 Paul Keating 5h ago
How dare the owners of capital be taxed at the same rates as the providers of Labour?
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u/Tw4Mn02 Libertarian Party 1h ago
We should be lowering taxes for income earners instead of increasing tax for capital gains. Plus if capital gains taxes are too high, less people are willing to buy and sell assets, because the transaction costs create a lock-in effect. Why would you sell an asset to buy another one if you're just going to get hit with a massive tax bill.
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u/GuyFromYr2095 Swing voter 1h ago
Applying a minimum 30% tax rate on capital gains on all asset classes is not "taxing at the same rate" as wages.
Also why is real capital losses not deductible against real capital gains?
The inconsistencies of the new approach makes no sense. It's either they don't understand what they are have legislated or it's simply a blatant tax grab.
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u/yothuyindi Lol @ partisan shills 4h ago
acting like people who invest in shares don't also work in order to fund that investment, lol
most of them are the same people
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u/karma3000 Paul Keating 4h ago
Should I put it more simply lol.
Pre-tax returns from assets - like capital gains, interest and dividends, get taxed at the same rates as employee wages.
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u/RedditUser628426 5h ago
then applying it to investments in productivity ie shares.
Yeah I mean I been DCAing into a car fund for my kids since they were born lol now Dr Jim puts his hand into that! For intergenerational equity what a joke.
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u/Ardeet 👍☝️ 👁️👁️ ⚖️ Always suspect government 7h ago
Labor is increasingly emphasising the need to restrain spending to help ease inflation, with Chalmers using a speech this year to reaffirm there would be "another new savings package by year's end".
Labor deserves credit for having this on the table.
Restrained spending is a hard political sell however it's the mindset that's needed if we want to stop Australia going down an economic gurgler.
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u/RedditUser628426 7h ago
Labor deserves credit for
It's absolutely essential they have record spending (excl Covid and WW2) and the RBA have been practically begging for it.
It's 6 months late too. No doubt it will target small business and the elderly like their other "saving" packages.
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u/MentalMachine 4h ago
the elderly like their other "saving" packages.
I assume this is a reference to the private health rebate?
Why should the taxpayer subsidise an optional private healthcare, instead of investing in public healthcare?
Having private healthcare is still technically a luxury; the conversation about why it exists vs the failings of the public system is a fair one, but not sure how subsidies actually solve anything there.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad7727 5h ago
You mean the elderly boomers who’ve had every advantage the whole way through their working lives…..
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u/RedditUser628426 5h ago
My parents are boomers no way did they have every advantage nor did I growing up. It might be convenient for you to characterise it like that doesn't make it in any way true.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad7727 5h ago
And if they are at the bottom of the socio-economic table they will continue to get looked after.
Boomer spending is one of the highest drivers of inflation in our economy…. Let not pull the wool over our eyes on this one
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u/RedditUser628426 5h ago
Edit:
they are at the bottom of the socio-economic table they will continue to get looked after.
And people who did okay for themselves and paid tax for 50 years? What are you suggesting for them?
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u/RedditUser628426 5h ago edited 5h ago
Sure reduce the minimum super withdrawal, even tax their expenditure higher I'm chill with that.
Screwing up people's retirement plans by changing Private Health or Pension well that breaks a social contract really that people paid tax for 50 years to contribute to.
Yes I'm well aware of the shitty social contract for young people - get a decent job and you'll get eerrrrr be able to buy a few things.
Robbing from the other end isn't the answer: tax billionaires. It's not a zero sum game but the major parties make it so.
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u/optimistic_agnostic 5h ago
When 25% of spending and foregone revenue is directed towards 14% of the population then yeah, it’s a good sign there’s some fat to be trimmed.
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u/RedditUser628426 5h ago
Citation needed on the numbers but yeah god forbid we fund elderly who can't work anymore.
Next minute you selfish babies will be saying "stop funding children they don't pay any damn tax and we spend so much on them they have so many advantages"
You do realise all the infrastructure you use was funded by the tax of these people you're determined to hate on?
Why don't we find all the bullshit government spending first for example FBT exemption for EV. This one benefits me personally, loving the middle class welfare, $1B+ on lost revenue.
So Chris Bowen can fly to the Pacific and say "Australia is doing it's thing"
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u/optimistic_agnostic 4h ago
2024/25 budget expense ~$730bn. $12.7bn in aged related Medicare spending, aged pension $62bn, aged care services $40bn, fracking credits $6bn, negative gearing and cgt discounts mostly enjoyed by older generations $12bn. This is all leaving out super tax concessions enjoyed over a lifetime to aide in funding retirement without government handouts.
I’m not in the age group you imagine, but it’s likely not the first or last time you’ll break from reality to hallucinate a stereotype to try and justify your selfishness. I pointed out where a disproportionately large amount of government spending goes for an unproductive and over serviced cohort of the community and instead of engaging and maybe acknowledging that level of opulent privilege is excessive in some respects you started throwing the toys out of the cot. NDIS is another area which is disproportionately taking from the budget and needs to be reined in, let’s see how passionately you defend that…
The fucking irony (and blind ideology) behind you complaining like a stuck little pig about government taxing small business then turning around and saying FBT in one specific case that upsets your feelings is one of the issues… just says all we need to know about your self awareness.
It’s your turn for citations for $1bn in cop31 spending, we committed to $150m by 2031 to make our own energy grid more efficient and sustainable.
Funding the youth takes up less even when you factor in FTB and other associated costs and we should be funding them more than the elderly because they will determine the productivity of the nation for the next 60 years. Pissing and moaning about “but we paid for their roads” is so idiotic and myopic I don’t know where to begin, who do you think is going to be funding the ambulance that ferries you to the ER for the 3rd time as you go into palliative care? Or the roads in the future that it drives on?
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u/RedditUser628426 4h ago
God forbid we pay for people's health. There is this funny thing about the human body it needs more care as you get older.
$1B is FBT exemption for EV not COP but yeah that's a good waste of money when people are homeless.
Super tax concessions well everyone gets them boomers didn't get them their while working life while today's workers will.
ROI is positive for government on Super Tax Concessions from
unproductive and over serviced cohort of the community and
Damn children you're right we should stop spending on them immediately. It's such a dumb argument.
But we paid for their roads
Far less idiotic than "we pay for their health care"
NDIS, fraud and the fact that's it's basically become UBI for unskilled workers sure. The basis is it has to stay
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u/optimistic_agnostic 4h ago
Youre not even talking coherently anymore and youre once again boxing with shadows. No one said cut health spending but you in your imagination.
Is that the same FBT exemption that's getting cut to 25% by 2027? Gee you picked a good example of wasteful spending the government wont touch there...
And cuts in spending on pension aged peoples tax benefits will affect the future generations too who wont get the gravy train. Most of us were getting super before the 90s mate so let's not start the 'we only got 15 years of super sob story'.
I made a pretty air tight argument on why we should spend on children, do you need your government subsidised prescription updated?
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u/Ardeet 👍☝️ 👁️👁️ ⚖️ Always suspect government 6h ago
The details are often where we find the devil however, as a high level policy and talking point, it's something we need to get to grips with in this country while there's still a remote chance we can action it.
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u/RedditUser628426 6h ago edited 6h ago
Agree even Hockey put it in a budget repair tax levy pretty much targetted at LNP base. I happily paid it because it was sold to me that we needed it and I knew it was temporary.
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u/kamikazecockatoo 7h ago
I'd love an Andy Burnham type of person to come forward. Someone with vision and bold ideas.
Where are they?
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u/BandicootNo5428 5h ago
Australia and idealism never mix. Source: Gough Whitlam.
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u/karma3000 Paul Keating 5h ago
Unfortunately true.
Also true is that Australian elections are won in the centre, and that includes IQ. John Howard being a classic example of 100 IQ thinking.
A 130 IQ candidate like Gough was just too much.
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u/nobelharvards 6h ago edited 6h ago
Go read about the rise and fall of Kevin Rudd.
To a lesser extent, Malcolm Turnbull was sort of the Liberals' response to Rudd.
Both had surface charisma, threw out some bold ideas, good and bad.
Both had mediocre to bad relations within their respective parties and lost their jobs fairly quickly as a result.
Both also behaved as if they were the smartest person in the room, which they sometimes were, but still not a good idea when your colleagues can formally challenge you for the leadership part way through a term.
Both also hated News Corp and are hated by News Corp in return.
Because both of them burnt brightly but only for a short period of time, politicians with big personalities and big ideas became unfashionable in favour of deliberately boring, deliberately ordinary, deliberately "every man" ones like Albo or ScoMo.
Paul Keating was last century's version of them as well, to the point where he could seem like an elite who was out of touch with ordinary Australians, despite being a bloke from Bankstown with no tertiary education. He had a lot of ideas about integrating closer with Asia and Australia becoming a republic.
John Howard expertly manipulated Keating into that "elite" image despite it not being true, alongside Keating's personality flaws, to defeat him in a landslide in 1996.
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u/nobelharvards 8h ago
There is definitely discontent, but nowhere near enough to unseat Albo.
They've been in this situation before in the 2nd half of the last parliamentary term where it looked like people were warming to a minority Dutton Coalition government potentially supported by some Teals, before ultimately ending up with a record breaking majority for a centre left government.
On top of all that, the rules Kevin Rudd put in place in 2013 means that a Labor PM can only be formally ousted by a 75% supermajority.
The USA president impeachment threshold in the Senate is 2/3rds, although it's only for very illegal stuff, not just unhappiness or discontent with the current leader.
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u/Top_Conference_477 8h ago
Good luck to them. The talent pool for potential PMs is exceptionally shallow after Albo
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