The Chaser Report - Albanese Backstabbed for Leading Preference Poll | Chris Taylor

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

After Albanese leads the latest poll for preferred PM by a landslide, The Chaser team immediately begin preparing for a Labor leadership spill. Join Chris, Charles, and Dom as politics is back on The Chaser Report! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report. It is Wednesday, the 3rd of August. We have Charles Firth, Dom Knight and Chris Taylor are still here. Yesterday's podcast promised politics at some point. We didn't quite get to it. There was lots of fruit and vegetable theme discussion. But today, I think we should look at what happened a couple of days ago now, which is that Anthony Albanese has had the best news poll for a new PM since the start of news polls.

Oh, really? Yeah, you can imagine how much it hurt the Australian to have to write that. Albao had had the strongest start ever. Was their pie chart, did they still have 61% as the minority in the situation? I think they probably did. Now, what was Hawke? Hawkeye was pretty high, I feel like that. Well, I may not have had news poll back then, but it's really about the notion of

first cab out of the rank. Normally there's buyers remorse, right? Normally you have a PM. Like with Kevin Rudd, very popular. Immediately. Until he started being PM and saying, okay, guys, ice fovos, and then everyone went, oh, no, what have we done? Yeah, it was the election night speech.

Yeah, it was. That ruined his parliament. One second into winning. I thought it might, I don't think it was news poll. It might have been the essential poll. They did have elbow take a bit of a dip. You know, when there was all that ridiculous conjecture about him being overseas a bit too much during the floods.

And I think it was the Guardian essential poll, sort of did have him take a little bit of a dip. Was it from 99% to 97% in the Guardian readers? But, yeah, and, but, I mean, not really surprising, given, you know, still very much in the honeymoon period, and doing a lot of sort of aspirational sort of, you know, it's a lot of fixing diplomacy, it's their voice, you know, promising a referendum for an Indigenous voice to Parliament. The more interesting stat is what Dutton's polling is.

Have you got that, Dom? I want to get on to Dutton, but before we do, I want to, like, My theory with Albo jumping up so high is that no one knew who he was. I actually, because he got the lowest Labour vote in a very long time. I think a lot of Australians post-election have gone, oh, this Prime Minister bloke seems, well, they've never heard of Albo before. But I think also it was that the Libs and actually most of the press,

like the Murdoch press, was so histrionic. Like, the world will collapse if you elect Labour. It won't be easy. It won't be easy under Albanese. And suddenly it's like, oh, it's exactly the same. except we're not embarrassed by our Prime Minister each day. I wonder if it's that. So it's not necessarily a massive vote of confidence in our bow,

even though it's partly that, clearly. But it's, oh, I forgot what normal politics or functional politics looks like. It's not like the shit show every day of... Competent government. Blame shifting or a new scandal about pork barreling. It's sort of, oh, it's people not doing cheap political point scoring against their... Governing. Yeah, governing.

Governing. A novel idea for a government, but yeah, they've been governing. Yes. And with an eye as much on international relations as domestic politics, which I think Australians, having just gone through the biggest global event any of us will ever go through in the pandemic, realize that we are part of a world, we're not the insular politics that Morrison tried to create

because he was on sure a footing there. Alba's sort of, you know, getting back out on the world stage, and Penny Wong's doing, you know, great work there. But hang on, is she, though? Because the image thing about Penny Wong is that all she seems to need to do is actually just turn up and have a cup of tea. It's extraordinary. I know, but see, this is the thing.

It's very impressive. My dad is an expert in Pacific politics, right? Right. And he says, he reckons that the key thing to be an Australian leader visiting a Pacific nation is simply to know the names of the people that you're visiting. How low must the bar have? And actually, apparently, no, Julie Bishop did. She'd be great of it.

She would do, on the plane, she'd learn all the names, and she was actually quite good at it. But then after Julie Bishop was Maurice Payne, right, apparently she never once, like, she did not learn anyone's name. She would hop off. And she would also have these huge security details. Aren't they just staff as his job it is? You know, like the Tony Hale character in Veve? Oh, yes.

She'll whisper the correct, not only the name, but the correct pronunciation. Surely that she'd have someone on that. Well, the Pacific leaders didn't have anyone either, but as soon as they started talking to her, they just went, oh, pain. And it was all fun. No, but no, so the bureaucrats would do a briefing paper. She'd never read the briefing paper. So, and.

If true, if true, that's what I'm thinking. The bar must have been, I mean, no disrespect to Penny Wong, but she could probably have handled a far more complicated situation, but it seemed as though, upon touching. down and shaking a hat. I was like, well, we're back with Australia again. That's all we wanted. Because the other thing is, so Maurice Payne would require a huge entourage and a whole

lot of security detail and be all like, we've got to keep everyone from touching her. She's the minister. And Penny Wong just literally would rock up with her and one advisor and do the whole handshake everyone who came up to her. And that was also saying as like, oh my God, so humble. Yeah, she's so humble and just wants. to be, you know, like. Someone told me, I had a really interesting dinner with someone who was formerly in

the New Zealand government, and New Zealand is the only country. I think this is true even to this day. I might be wrong, fact check me, if not. But at the time I was having this conversation, they were the only country ever to secure a free trade agreement with China. No one else could ever get one. And the reason he believed they got it was sort of that, he rocked up alone. He didn't have any entourage.

Very Kiwi. Just with an esky, maybe. It's a chili bin. He bought a chili bin with you, yeah. And it wasn't sort of this chess game of, you know, trying to out. It was just very humble going, oh, we've got this, you've got that. We've got milk. Yeah, we've got wool.

And we got chile buns. We've got some wool. We've got some wool and some chili bin. And they were just sort of. You've got cheap shit. It just felt like they weren't trying to bullshit them. So China said, oh, they seemed trustworthy. And they got the deal that no one else could get.

So there is something to that. I wonder if, you know, a lot of sort of brinkmanship is now a bit Dick Swingy. Yes. And that's not a good strategy. Maybe it should just be literally sitting down. Maybe they should never take place in opulent lounge rooms. They should just go to the local dive bar. Yeah, just go to the dive bar.

Order, you know, order a couple of crownies and just have a chat. Well, this is the other thing that Penny Wong was quite extraordinary in doing is because remember, She kept on hopping on the plane in the first few weeks. Yeah, she went back over and over again. Her frequent flypoints would be amazing right now. She might actually know the name. Genuinely, by now.

She's the only person that Qantas has actually successfully transported for the last six months. But she also went to Malaysia, right? And instead of going to, like, Kuala Lumpura, where, you know, like that, she went to the place where her family originally comes from in Malaysia. Yeah, she's Kinnibalu or something. Yeah, Kinnabalu.

And apparently, that's a whole thing in Malaysia. Like, you know, the whole, because there's quite a large Malaysian diaspora all around the world. And the whole idea of going back to where you originally come from. Went to our old school, I think you? Yeah, it was very sweet. And it just rocketed around Malaysia as, oh my gosh, she's one of us. You know, like, she knows how we, what we value and stuff like that and played it really well. And yet when Scombe was over in England and went to an old cemetery or a church,

looking up his family tree, that wasn't received. same way. That was to seem as a wrought, how dare the guy on our dime, be looking up family history. So it's, yeah, I mean, sort of the same thing. Yeah, you're right. And different cultural responses to the same incident. So we actually, I was just checking, we actually, because I thought we did, we've got a free trade agreement with China, but probably got it much later than New Zealand.

I'm just wondering, it mustn't be worth very much given the amount of shit we've been through in that relationship over the past few years. Like, we do still have a free trade agreement, but yet we don't trade with China much at all. They announced just last week that they're going to start buying our coal again. So, well, done. We've got that. That's an achievement to the labour that we get to pollute the world.

So you asked about Dutton's numbers. And interestingly, preferred PM. He's dropped 17 points versus Morrison. Wow. So Albows 59, Dutton's 25. And unsurprisingly, a lot of people are like, neither. Thank you very much. Imagine being more unpopular than Morrison.

During your honeymoon. Like, we all assumed he'd get to that figure, but he's there already. Yeah, it's quite extraordinary. That's, yeah. So Dato's 25% man is, is Dutton's position now. Okay, so how many, you know, remember the old parlance of Turnbull and Abbott, how many news polls can you be? How long do you give Dutton if he stays at 20, in the 20s for 30 news polls in a row?

But won't they, why don't it just be like, They will definitely replace him about six months out from the next election. That's his job. He's the Brendan Nelson in this situation. He's a sacrificial potato. Yeah. But I must say, I do feel, I want to stick up for Peter Dutton a little bit, right? Because I've been, I mean, the thing about Peter Dutton is, if you hate him,

hate him, don't hate him because he looks scary. Don't hate him because he's bald. Don't hate him because he's a bit tubby. Because I've got to say, as time goes on, he and I are wearing an increasing resemblance. And it troubles me enormous. When I arrived today, I thought, oh, Peter Dutton's the guest in the podcast. I admittedly, I'd never achieve 25% popularity. The Chaser Report, less news, less often.

What would you do as a strategy if you were Peter Dutton? How would you claw back that lost support? Gee, that's a good question. I mean, realistically, Albo's not going to stay at the numbers he's at. There is obviously a bit of a post-election bump. We were all very confident that, you know, in six months' time, there will start to be some trips in the government, as all government's experience.

It's just impossible to be perfect as a government. Ask Dominic Perotabing, so I was Premier, about that. So his best strategy in a way is to Stephen Bradbury and just wait for Albao to sort of trip. But that's sort of a poor answer. If you were strategising... Do you think he needs a new rhyme, for Albernese.

Oh. Oh. Like, because... You'll feel Cleesey. Yeah. Oh, you feel that's good.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to get. All the other ones that had in mind were... Yeah. Bad tons on Italian things. Yeah. No, but I mean, the thing that he...

The thing that Albo did actually now, we can say, we know that the Abbott approach worked back then. Yes. But the Albao approach worked really well, which was to choose specific things to disagree with and to wave a lot of things through. Whereas day one in the parliament, he's going, oh, building unions.

you can't tell me that the ordinary Australian gives us shit about the AB C, right? It was a very strange attack. Well, the one, the day we're recording this in Parliament, in question time today, the line of attack from Dutton is all about cost of living and the fuel excise. Which is interesting territory, given there's obviously

a very strong argument to be made that the previous government set in train the inflation that the country is experiencing at the moment. But again, if you were advising in him you'd say Albo can't keep saying the previous government caused this for much longer

I think you're allowed to do that for about six months six months max it partly because it just gets you look weak as a leader if you're just constantly blaming your predecessor for everything

that's going wrong but also it'll just become a bit boy you cried wolf sort of fall on deaf is so I think what Dutton will try to do is create

like in a way he's been given a gift because the economy that the government's inherited is so bad, and getting worse, like interest rates are only going to climb. Inflation is not going down anytime soon. So he can really, the myth that Labor's terrible at managing the economy, which is sort of wrong, is finally possibly going to be spun to be true because the economy is about to be as bad as it was back under the Keating days

in terms of high interest rates and stuff. Yes. He could be the John Houston. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Houston, I'd love that analogy. This podcast might have been more relatable when we're going to talk about lettuce. But anyway, no, look, it is interesting to think of what he would do. I mean, I wouldn't bother doing much for the first few months.

It's get your team together. He just went on a long holiday. Dutton only just came back. Like, his numbers plummeted even while he was away. That's weird, because normally you go up when you're not around. Yeah, yeah. Particularly in Dutton's case, I think the less he says, the better he'll go.

So this is he's probably his honeymoon. Maybe. She'd think he can get in the teams. Yeah, that's right. That's the lowest, anyone, like, I guess Billy McMahon, they weren't polling the way we were now, but he would have to be down there. Oh, that's as bad as I've ever seen.

25% is pretty, pretty terrible, yeah, yeah. The thing they've both got going for them is, I guess, who are the alternatives? In Dutton's case, I was reading Peter Van Oncelain, which I occasionally do, you know, to find out what the other half thinks. And he was making the point, there's almost no, all the likeable people in the coalition or in the Senate.

So all the more popular, you're Josh Frydenbergs and so on who might have challenged are all out. And the people, the moderates who actually might actually want to bump dutton off are all in the Senate, so I can't. Except Richard Archer, who is the moderate who always across the floor. Does she keep on voting against the Liberal Party? Wouldn't that be a problem as the leader of the Liberal Party if you kept on? But what a great brand to boost your numbers.

I will lead and I'll do everything that the Liberal Party doesn't want me to. I'd vote for it. Yeah, I would. I mean, that's how Barnaby Joyce became national. It's sort of what Turnbull promised to do and didn't. Like, we all like Terminal because we said, oh no, because these states one like and he's got abused. He's going to change everything around. But he just never actually crossed the floor to vote against the appalling policies of the coalition.

Whereas Bridget Archer will. I'd love her to be the leader of the party and be the only person as leader who crosses the floor. and none of the people under a hipon. That would be very entertaining. And I guess that the other thing is, the 61% of me, this record figure for Albo. This means that it'll be another couple of weeks

before the first challenge, right? Doesn't it find them a little bit of security? This buys Albo an extra couple of weeks. Yeah. I think if you're tanion of Plibersec, you're going, oh, look, wait until October. Well, under the new rules, they can't, can they? Yeah, no, it's very hard to dump an underperforming Pia.

This is the Rudd poison pill that he put in. Well, it was actually Albao came up with this poison pill. Was it really? Yes, it was. I don't know what you remember, but when they first knocked off Rudd. Remember how Rudd was elected in 2007 with this thumping majority? And then in the first term, Gilard turned around and knocked Rudd off, right? Via the faceless man.

As soon as this news poll dropped, really. And Anthony Albanese stood essentially alone, unique, on the left and went, in good conscience, I cannot vote against Rudd as a prime minister in the first term. Like, this is not, this will come back to bite us, right? And he was right. And he was right. And it turned out to be very precinct. And then when all those things happened late in the Gillard term where Rudd was really trying to, when right, yeah.

Proved that it was wrong to get rid of prime ministers in their first term by doing exactly the same thing. Anthony Albanesey came in and said, well, actually, let's set up some rules that mean that this never happens again and used that sort of sentiment of, yes, we really stuffed up before, to actually put in this thing, which he is now the, you know, recipient of it and bandy jobs. The one line in Albo's CV that he never talked about before the elected prime minister was that he was deputy PM to Rudd the second time Rudd was in.

Yes. No, I ever remembers that. Albao for a few months was the second most powerful man in the country. So if you're Bill Shorten or Tanya Plibertsik now and you have aspirations to lead the party, how do you go about that under the new rules? You wait. You wait till Albo is either elected out or resign. Has he got to lose an election?

Surely there's a little, in case of emergency, here's a knife behind the glass. In case of Boris Johnson. Yeah, what are those? Is it like a three quarters or something? It's a higher bar, I think. It's a higher bar. The only thing is that to get rid of that high bar would just require a vote of the majority. Oh, so that's what happened in the...

That's what happened in the... That's what happened in the UK. They've got a high bar. Yeah, you have to be removed by a vote of just the majority. Oh, that's not quite so safe, isn't it? So it's not entirely safe, but even just doing that... Like, there's just... Because there's that extra layer of complexity, it sort of places the slot...

A slightly high bar on the whole argy-budgy. But yes, if things got really bad, they would just jettison all those rules. Do you think we're the only media show or outlet that after this result that Albo's just recorded is already talking about a leadership spell? Yeah. It's like that you remember on election night on the ABC's coverage where Lee Sales asked Tanya and Pliber said, where did Labor go wrong? And Tanya just sort of did a double-take ago. the numbers I'm looking at, I don't think we went wrong. I think we're winning this election. And I think we're doing the lease sales.

We're currently going, Alba's just got a 61% approval rating, and we're talking about how Plibertset can knock him off. Well, that's because the way Labor works is, the things going well are just a temporary illusion. Because they're still Labor. They're also not comfortable with things going well. No.

They're at their best when they're on the back foot, when they're in the doldrums. It doesn't sit naturally with them to be, competence or to be popular. There will be someone in Sussex Street going, well, this elbow guy's doing well. I reckon you could just immediately transfer those same positive numbers to my guy. The question that I have is, you remember under Rudd and then Gillard, one of the most hilarious sort of subplots was all those corrupt union officials who would have, you know,

credit card that they'd been used to buy. Oh, Craig. Craig Thompson. The credit card. All those people. The whole health union. Yeah, yeah. Jackson.

Jackson. Yeah, yeah. There doesn't seem to be any subplot like that yet. Yet. Yet. Okay. No, because the union movement, I'm sure, is entirely, they've learned from those mistakes and they've put in processes and probity to make sure that there won't be any corrupting

uniform ever again. So impatient, Charles Ful. Like, give them another month. They'll be corruption. Yeah, okay. They'll be, you know. Well, they need corruption because they're going to set up a whole new, commission for it. It would be

embarrassing to set it up and then not do any corruption. And that is the history of those sorts of Royal Commissions is that actually the government that sets it up then always gets done for it. The Nick Carina thing. And also like even I remember there is now having issues with the one in Victoria. And the Union

Royal Commission, no no it was the superannuation Royal Commission early on in the coalition government's thing. Netted all the commercial retail funds which they were trying to protect and all the union funds were fine that turned out to be really good value but i must say to to our bow's credit the thing that he's doing it i think is very impressive and very wise you're saying to everyone don't waste your time get on with it crack on with it let's not rest on our laurels get things done you never know when he'll be out of office in his case it may be weeks but good on him for actually trying

have a legacy with you know week by week it was the Australian parliament version of dead poet society with the Carpe Diem speech that Robin Williams gave in that film of, you know, you're not here for very long, so make it last where you are. I loved a very working class sort of elbow version of that going, yeah, like, you probably will be knife tomorrow or lose in the next election, so make it count. It was sort of, yeah, it was a bit Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights,

so I really liked that, yeah. And knowing Labor, you won't have talked over, so enjoy a while last album. Our Gears from Road, we're part of the ACAS, Creator Network. Catch you tomorrow.