Albo's stumbles, Dutton's reckoning
With Anthony Albanese repeatedly failing to rise to the moment, Peter Dutton now finds himself under the weight of big expectations internally.
When we sent out our first Political Capital newsletter in September 2023, the political environment in Australia was very different.
Labor had a comfortable lead against the Coalition in Newspoll of 53-47% two-party-preferred, and the Voice to Parliament referendum hadn’t yet been rejected in a humiliating defeat for Anthony Albanese.
Back then, glowing opinion pieces and editorials were still being written about the prime minister on the daily, no doubt helped by his well-known penchant for picking up the phone to senior journalists and editors.
While Peter Dutton was making some strides in campaigning against the referendum, he wasn’t seen by many political commentators — and a lot of people in Labor — as a serious threat to win the next election. He had already announced his intention to develop a nuclear power industry, but very few people were taking it seriously considering where his party was in the polls.
