Labor needs to show some fight and again be a party of reform to fend off Coalition

Just what is Anthony Albanese going to fight next year’s election on? Is there anything that Labor will die in the ditch over?

Because at the end of 2024, Labor seems just as captured by vested interests as the other mob, and more than willing to run up the white flag in fear of turning off sections of the electorate.

It also doesn’t seem up for a fight, having let Peter Dutton push it around for two and half years and dominate the headlines – granted that’s pretty easy to do when the dominant Murdoch press reads like a Coalition newsletter.

So much so that whatever achievements it has chalked up are being drowned out by a relentless barrage of negative attacks on any front you care to name.

There is little in the way of detailed policy coming out of Dutton’s office but the message is crystal clear – your shopping bill, rent, mortgage repayments, power outages are all Labor’s fault.

In an era of short memories and genuine financial pain, incumbent governments are vulnerable if they do not show some pluck and counter that noise.

Digesting the Trump win over recent weeks, it seems struggling, aggrieved voters wanted answers to their troubles not policy tweaks or demonisation of the man who was happy to explain their problems, apportion blame, and offer them hope.

The notion that a billionaire grifter like Trump will act in the interests of these people by actually restructuring a system that has failed them but delivered fortunes to a few is laughable.

But he tapped into their despair and anger and made them feel like he had their back.

That is coming for Labor too, with Dutton proclaiming the Liberals are now the party of the working class that Albanese has forsaken.

For those whose opportunities are narrowing, whose lives are being suffocated by the cost of living, who are locked out of the housing market or burning money renting, who have jobs or even careers that aren’t going to provide a lifestyle their parents or grandparents had, having someone to blame and punish is at least something.

So despite Labor ensuring wages have risen, delivered tax cuts to more, lowered energy bills and made a start on boosting the nation’s housing supply, voters are twitchy.

It’s about perception, and at this stage the more Labor does to strengthen its position politically, the weaker it looks.

Labor has given up on immigration, committing itself to inhumane measures so it can look just as tough as the Coalition, which now says it is effectively running the show.

It has abandoned the environment, Albanese blindsiding Tania Plibesek on the Environmental Protection Agency Bill after a call from the WA Premier letting him know his mining mates wouldn’t cop it.

WA is crucial to Labor’s hopes for a second term, so forget the mess Australia’s environmental laws are in, not to mention the loss of habitat and ongoing extinctions.

It says it remains committed to climate action and the energy transition, but continues to approve new coal mines and allowed the Coalition’s sudden romance with nuclear to blossom, and actually gain traction with voters spooked by summer brownout fears.

On the economy, Labor is so traumatised by the 2019 campaign in which meaningful tax reforms were taken apart that it won’t take a stand on measures that would tackle the growing inequity in this country.

It’s become the incredible shrinking government in stature and purpose. And as the election nears, a risk-averse Albanese looks likely to ditch anything that might attract any heat.

The argument has always been purity is great, but you can’t achieve anything in opposition. The problem is you have to offer voters more than the lesser of two evils and not being Peter Dutton.

Dutton is projecting strength and decisiveness, painting a picture of a government that has lost control of borders, the economy and the power grid – with little challenge to this scenario.

If Albanese and Labor do not take the field, find the courage to address the core issues and hope to slip through to a second term with an even more small-target campaign than before, voters may well decide what’s the point and put Dutton in the Lodge.

Right now cost of living – and housing and energy are inextricably linked to this – is top of mind for voters. Fiddling at the edges won’t cut it.

Labor needs to give voters something to think about, grasp and give them hope. And fight for it.