What a great day that will be
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-and-labor-are-preparing-for-the...Albanese and Labor are preparing for the day after the Voice is defeated
If it wasn’t already clear, Labor’s 49th national conference made it plain: the ALP is now bracing for the Voice to parliament to be lost.
This is not a surprise: the downward trend in support for the Voice has been obvious for months and the most recent Resolve Political Monitor showed that, finally, both the prime minister’s personal standing and that of Labor are now affected.
Two things stood out at the conference: first, the willingness of delegates to privately canvass how Labor will handle the fallout of a loss, and second, Anthony Albanese’s shift in focus in his speeches.
Albanese’s opening conference speech on Thursday contained just two mentions of the proposed Voice but six mentions of the rising costs Australians face, as well as 14 references to affordable housing. And subtly, on Friday, the prime minister promised to “do my best to promote a Yes vote”.
On Saturday – during a set piece on the historic constitutional reform – Albanese rallied the party faithful to the cause. But he also pointedly noted the Voice was not a convenient reform to fight for, but one necessary to pursue as a matter of conviction and that “the idea of a Voice came from the grassroots, it will be decided at the grassroots”.
The subtle distancing of the PM from the proposal is clear.
And Alex Ellinghausen’s extraordinary photographs of Albanese on stage after his speech, alongside Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney, are not subtle: the prime minister’s pain is plain.