PM eyes long election campaign on back of Future Made in Australia win

Caretaker period is fast approaching and the Australian Public Service is bracing for an election to be announced sooner rather than later and to then step back while the parties and candidates fight it out in what is expected to be a bitter campaign.

Among all the speculation over the timing of the election, two dates are emerging as the strongest contenders – 12 April or, more likely, 3 May.

A long campaign period is also a distinct possibility, with word being that Anthony Albanese wants as much time on the campaign trail to allow him and his team to shine while hoping the Coalition unravels.

The Prime Minister believes Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will be exposed as having little substance the longer the campaign draws out.

“The PM thinks Dutton will go hard on repeating three-word slogans but will avoid answering any of the tough questions,” one government insider told Region.

“And those of us in Labor who have had anything to do with Dutton believe the PM is right in his assessment.”

Mr Albanese also believes his runs of the board and future visions will speak for themselves by the time Australia votes.

The PM has his own favourite slogans he keeps repeating.

“My government’s got a record of getting things done in Australia’s national interest,” he said during a media appearance on Tuesday (11 February).

“I’ll continue to do so.”

For his part, however, Mr Dutton has so far been astutely disciplined in attacking the government over the cost of living and exposing what he sees as Labor’s weakness in pursuing a progressive agenda at the expense of middle Australia.

But as far as the public service is concerned, it wants the PM to bring on the campaign.

“It will then be them fighting over policy and we can bide our time waiting for things to get back to some form of normalcy,” one senior public servant told Region.

“All this endless talk about when the election will be is not good for Australia, it’s not good for the market, and it’s certainly not good for the APS.

“Policy talk can’t really be taken too seriously at this point of the election cycle.”

One policy win Labor has had this week, which it hopes will bode well for it once the election is called, is the passing of the centrepiece of its Future Made in Australia plan.

The Senate passed the government’s $13.7 billion tax breaks for critical minerals processing and green hydrogen production.

The Greens and other crossbenchers joined with Labor to pass the legislation.

Greens support came only after succeeding with an amendment to prevent funding for uranium mining.

“This legislation ensures taxpayer money goes where it should, into clean manufacturing, critical minerals processing, and green hydrogen – not into dangerous climate-wrecking industries of the past,” Greens resources spokesperson Dorinda Cox said.

The Coalition voted against the concessions but did not have the numbers to win the day.

Labor will use the tax breaks to foster emerging green industries, which Mr Albanese says will help Australia counter some of the grip China has on the global supply of critical minerals.

They are used for clean energy technologies in batteries, wind turbines, aircraft and submarines.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Resources Minister Madeleine King, and Energy Minister Chris Bowen issued a joint statement praising the win over critical minerals tax breaks,

“We recognise that the best opportunities for Australia and its people lie at the intersection of industry, energy, resources, skills and our ability to attract and deploy investment,” their statement read.

“These tax incentives will leverage traditional strengths and encourage and enable new industries which help maximise our opportunities in the global net zero transformation.”

But as one senior Labor operative told Region: “This win is a good one for us this close to an election. We can now tell the mining states that the Coalition is opposed to mining. They voted against massive subsidies for the resources sector in WA and Queensland.”