What will Labor do next?

Dutton is unemployed, and I'm eating a chocolate.

In my adult life, there are two times I can recall feeling truly proud of my country. The first was the cult of the Matildas during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the second is the night of the 2022 Federal Election.

I don’t need to explain the joy of seeing old blokes at my local pub screaming the full names of female athletes, many of whom are members of the LGBTQIA+ community and women of colour.

In 2022, I watched us explicitly reject the agenda of Scott Morrison and re-write what the political arena in Australia could look like. Between the Greenslide in Brisbane and an overwhelming Teal wave across the country, a clear message was sent to the two-party system: adapt or die.

Anthony Albanese’s commitment to implementing The Uluru Statement From the Heart in full during his victory speech was a truly unifying moment for our nation.

We were seeing action, vision and inclusion for the first time in a long time. Hope was palpable, with the understanding that any attempt at progress would be met with racist vitriol that would seek to divide our nation. Peter Dutton led a ‘No’ campaign which did just that. Fear, paranoia, division and shame have always been the only tools in his leadership kit.

When the Voice to Parliament was voted down in 2023, a generous invitation from First Nations people to walk forward together was rejected by Australians.

I deeply believe that it broke any confidence Anthony Albanese had. His leadership style entirely changed.

Looking from the outside in, I felt that Albanese allowed the referendum loss to define his leadership style. He became combative and defensive. His vision of Australia narrowed. The Albanese Government was driven by fear, by the desire to self-protect. Instead of governing, this was a broken man attempting to survive.

At the end of last year, I don’t think you could have found an Australian who would confidently say Labor would win the election. It was Peter Dutton’s to lose. Anthony Albanese had been made small, cold, contorted. Disappointment was the defining emotion of his first term.

At the beginning of the year, something changed.

In the coming days and weeks there will be a million opinion pieces with the perfect ‘take’ on the election. There is no singular answer to the question of why we are seeing the results that we are. But, here is my two cents.

Australians elected a Labor majority government based on the last three months, not the last three years. Peter Dutton did not offer a vision for our nation, he offered contentious and disjointed policies that failed to address the three major issues Australians care about: cost of living, climate & energy, and national security in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment. When he faced criticism, he deployed his toolkit to stoke the flames of division, and people saw through it.

I woke up on Sunday and felt proud of my country for a third time, and while I will broadly say it is because we rejected hatred and division - I know that our nation remains deeply entrenched in many forms of bigotry. I believe these two truths should be acknowledged at once: Australia is a deeply racist country, we also came together to decide we did not want to follow in the footsteps of America. While it might have been nuclear that did it for a family member, our collective rejection of a party which had nothing other than exclusion to offer us was recognised.

Maybe it’s naive, but I’d like to hold that tightly for a second. I acknowledge that I hold a privileged position in society, and that impacts the way I am able to experience Saturday’s outcome.

I have extensive criticisms of the two-party system and how Labor has failed to answer the progressive call for action. But, my hope is that this outcome communicates to the Albanese Government that their success on Saturday night is because they ran a campaign that went beyond “we are not him”.

I was seeking a minority government on the weekend that drove Labor left, but in the absence of that: I want Anthony Albanese to be confident enough to return to the values of his earlier political life. I want to see a bold leader who acts like the country just gave him the fucking golden ticket, because we did.

In the coming days the results will be clearer for many Greens and Independent candidates. I agree that the deep rejection of the Coalition has benefit Labor in ways that will be become crystallised in polling this week. If there’s one thing we do know, it’s that the Senate will ensure a more progressive policy agenda for Australia.

I entirely agree with the sentiment that we must demand more from the Labor party, and I am more inspired than ever to dream bigger for the kind of Australia we can foster over the next term of government. This is not a moment to take our foot off the accelerator.

But, Dutton’s unemployment feels fucking nice too. That can be enough for one short moment.

We can hold hurt and criticism for the Labor party and acknowledge that they ran a much better campaign, that they are distinct among the major parties. That is worth acknowledging. We can also be disappointed that Australia is not a more progressive country. This deserves to be a nuanced discussion, and I expect to face a lot of criticism for my position. Our theories of change are diverse, our emotions are as high as the stakes.

There’s probably only one hill I’ll die on, and it’s that this election was defined by conversations led by young people who are more politically engaged than any generation that has come before. I am so proud of how uncomfortable we have been willing to get in this sliding doors moment for our country. We are only just getting started.