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Labor has a problem with Anthony Albanese.
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Labor → publish → Albanese
It also has a problem with Jim Chalmers.
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It → have → Chalmers
'Two for the price of one', as one unimpressed Labor MP put it to the Daily Mail.
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MP → put → Mail
And the uncomfortable truth for a government searching for someone to blame is that getting rid of either one would do precious little to absolve the other of the same fate: 'They're tied at the hip now.'
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They → search → hip
Behind the public declarations of unity, two currents of discontent are running through Labor at once.
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currents → run → Labor
Some Labor figures believe the Prime Minister is politically spent: that voters have stopped listening, and that another carefully staged announcement won't bring them back.
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announcement → believe → them
Albo's age, 65 by the time of the next election, doesn't help.
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age → help → election
Others are increasingly frustrated with the much younger Treasurer, whose economic explanations keep coming while the promised improvement in people's lives keeps being pushed further over the horizon.
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improvement → frustrate → horizon
'He's the problem,' a former Labor strategist says.
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strategist → say → ?
The various complaints overlap, but they don't necessarily lead to the same conclusion about who should go, who should stay, or who could possibly fix the mess.
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who → overlap → mess
'People are losing faith in Albo, but that doesn't mean they think Jim is the answer,' a second Labor MP argues.
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MP → lose → Albo
Dissatisfaction with Albanese doesn't automatically translate into enthusiasm for Jim Chalmers.
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Dissatisfaction → translate → Chalmers
Nor does frustration with Chalmers mean the PM has escaped responsibility for the government he leads.
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he → mean → government
A Labor colleague says: 'You can't have a Prime Minister claiming he fixed something and expect nobody to ask who stuffed it up in the first place.'
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who → say → place
That's what happened this week
Labor's problem is that its two most important figures are both the cause of the drift that colleagues are complaining about.
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colleagues → happen → that
Labor has 94 MPs in the lower house.
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Labor → have → house
That landslide brought in people defending seats the party doesn't normally hold, including inexperienced MPs who have never endured a serious reversal in political fortunes before.
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who → bring → fortunes
Approaching the halfway mark of Labor's second three-year term, some panic is entirely predictable, even with the right wing of politics fractured.
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wing → approach → politics
An MP fearing the loss of their seat isn't necessarily offering a dispassionate assessment of the national interest.
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MP → fear → interest
Nor does a huge parliamentary majority mean every individual sitting behind the Prime Minister feels safe.
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individual → mean → Minister
Some worry about the opposition recovering.
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opposition → worry → ?
Others have more immediate reason to worry about One Nation.
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Others → have → Nation
Albanese's reassurance that Labor will be 'kicking with the wind in the fourth quarter' is wearing thin for some.
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Labor → kick → some
The latest Newspoll offers little comfort either.
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Newspoll → offer → comfort
Sixty per cent of those polled are dissatisfied with Albanese personally.
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cent → poll → Albanese
But it's also an indictment: Labor is struggling against an opponent who is polling just 20 per cent.
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who → struggle → cent
'It's easy to tell people to hang on when you're not the one wondering whether you'll lose your seat,' a first-term MP declares.
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MP → tell → seat
The Australian Taxation Office credit card fiasco has supplied a particularly revealing glimpse of the government's workings.
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fiasco → supply → workings
Small Business Minister Anne Aly and Communications Minister Anika Wells: two frontbenchers who have copped flak this week
A decision threatening a small business cash flow lifeline produced confused ministerial messages, mounting anger and a taxpayer-funded delay.
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decision → cop → messages
Then came the scramble over who deserved credit for the retreat.
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who → come → retreat
At a business dinner, Albanese presented himself as the man who responded to an appeal from business and got things moving.
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things → present → business
Chalmers subsequently insisted the pair had shared the same view and were already working on an intervention.
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pair → insist → intervention
By Question Time, the Prime Minister was stressing collective agreement.
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Minister → stress → agreement
Even the fix became another story about the government's dysfunction.
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fix → become → dysfunction
When business appeals directly to the Prime Minister and he publicly celebrates his own intervention, the Treasurer looks diminished, whatever the sequence of conversations that took place.
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that → appeal → place
He can't keep claiming credit for rescuing people from decisions made on his watch without inviting questions about why his government keeps needing rescuing.
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government → keep → rescuing
'You can't have a Prime Minister claiming he fixed something and expect nobody to ask who stuffed it up in the first place,' a colleague says.
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colleague → have → place
The state of the economy makes those questions even harder to brush aside.
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questions → make → economy
The Reserve Bank's September increase took the cash rate to 4.6 per cent, its fourth rise this year and the highest it's been in 15 years.
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it → take → years
The Middle East conflict is adding to inflation, but Governor Michele Bullock has been clear that domestic capacity pressures were already a problem.
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pressures → add → inflation
…and 32 more, not listed.
The Aporia
