The Albanians of Australia: a pragmatist who promises unity

SYDNEY, May 21 (Reuters) – Anthony Albanese, who will be Australia’s next prime minister, is a pragmatic working-class leader who is committed to ending divisions in the country.

“I want to bring the country together,” the Labor Party leader said after Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat after Saturday’s election. read more

“I think people want to come together, look to our common interest, look toward that sense of common purpose. I think people have had enough of division, what they want is to come together as a nation and I intend to lead that.”

The Labor election campaign highlighted Albanese’s working-class credentials and his image as a pragmatic unifier.

Albanese, 59, entered parliament in 1996, just as Labor entered the first of two decade-long opposition patches. The time the party returned to power, from 2007 to 2013, was marred by leadership disputes in which it openly criticized both sides.

Those years forged his reputation as a collaborator willing to work across ideological lines, as leader of the House where he handled government business in parliament.

After defeats in the 2010 election, the Labor Party took over the country’s first minority government in 70 years, requiring it to win the support of Conservatives or independents to pass legislation.

But according to a measure cited by political commentators (the number of laws passed compared to the number of days in office), it turned out to be Australia’s most productive parliament.

“There was an attempt to create chaos, but what Anthony (as House leader) did was make sure the government’s job proceeded,” said Craig Emerson, who was trade minister in that government.

At age 12, Albanese helped organize a rent strike that prevented her mother’s public housing property from being sold to developers. Those who know Albanese say that he is genuinely motivated by the mix of pragmatism and concern for social justice that he acquired during his childhood struggles.

“It gave me the determination, each and every day, to help people like me, growing up, to have a better life,” Albanese told the National Press Club in January, recalling how she sometimes relied on neighbors for food. when his mother, dependent on a disability pension, was unable to support him.

Albanese was the first in his family to attend college, where he studied economics and became involved in student politics.

At 22, he was elected chairman of Young Labor, the party’s youth wing, and worked as a research officer under the economic reformist government of Bob Hawke, Labor’s longest-serving prime minister.

“Anthony has … the ability to look beyond the party’s political alignment,” said Robert Tickner, a former Labor member who took the Albanese teenager’s call about his mother’s stove.

“(He) believes in this idea that there are people of good will in the community,” Tickner said in a telephone interview. “He is not someone sectarian.”

Information from Byron Kaye, Timothy Heritage edition

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