Great expectations
As both major parties extend their suspension of hostilities after the pope's death, Anthony Albanese is continuing to benefit from the lowered expectations he set for himself in 2024.
In one of his first addresses to the Labor party room as prime minister, Anthony Albanese declared: “I’m going to grow this place.” Having finally returned from nine long years in the political wilderness, Labor MPs were left with the impression that there was a clear plan to increase the party’s razor-thin majority of 77 seats that Albanese had delivered them at the 2022 election.
As 2024 drew to a close, though, many feared Albanese would not live up to his commitment. The widespread expectation was that they were hurtling towards deep minority government or worse — outright defeat at the hands of Peter Dutton — without any meaningful reform to show for it.
Meanwhile, as we foreshadowed at the time, in the Coalition expectations were running wild towards the end of last year it was in a position to win — despite almost every poll showing that its primary support still wasn’t high enough.
Months later, the widely held expectation is that Labor will hold on to government in minority or majority, and that the Coalition has next to no chance of victory.
