Anthony Albanese may be only four years into the job, but last week a trusted senior colleague was already nudging him towards the pantheon of greatness.
Special Minister of State Don Farrell, the right-wing Labor powerbroker known inside the party as ‘The Godfather’, publicly urged Albanese to expand the size of parliament to give Australians fairer representation, noting that Bob Hawke was the last Labor prime minister to do so, four decades ago.
“Roughly every 40 years there’s been a re-evaluation of representation,” Farrell said. “Increasing the size of parliament is what great Labor leaders do.”
Hawke’s successor, Paul Keating, was typically blunt about the use of power in 2013: “If you aren’t spending your capital on the big things, then you’re just a bookkeeper, not a leader”.
