The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-23)

MONDAY, MAY 23 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY MICHAEL E. MILLER

sydney — When Anthony Alba-
nese attends the Quad summit in
Tokyo on Tuesday, the newly
sworn-in Australian prime min-
ister will meet an American pres-
ident that in many ways is his
mirror image.
Like Joe Biden, Albanese is a
Catholic with an affinity for the
working class, a veteran of his
center-left party and a folksy if
uncharismatic campaigner who
overcame stumbles to topple a
divisive opponent.
But there is a notable way in
which the two leaders differ.
Biden, 79, began formulating a
plan to become president when
he was a teenager, and he first
ran for the White House when he
was 44. At that age, Albanese, 59,
has said he had no inkling of
becoming Labor Party leader, let
alone prime minister.
“He didn’t envisage himself as
a leader until as late as 2013,”
said political historian Paul
Strangio. “Now here he is, prime
minister of the country after just
one term as opposition leader.
That is quite striking.”
Biden called Albanese by
phone to congratulate him on his
victory and to thank him for
attending the Quad summit,
which brings together the lead-
ers of the United States, Aus-
tralia, Japan and India. Albanese
was spending the day after the
election receiving foreign brief-
ings. He was to be sworn in
Monday before heading to Tokyo
with his foreign minister, Penny
Wong.
Despite polls presaging his
victory, Albanese may be Aus-
tralia’s most unexpected prime
minister. Until this weekend, his
political career had been a slow
burn. A defeat could have cast
him as someone too cautious or
kind to reach the top. Instead,
Albanese’s narrow victory has
him looking like a canny strat-
egist who could reshape his
country in a way that his more
personally ambitious predeces-
sors did not.
His humble roots, meanwhile,
could help Albanese connect
with his American counterpart
and put the countries on more

Albanese cites the story as a

wellspring of his empathy for

others. As a Catholic-school boy,

he attended local Labor Party

meetings with his mother and

grandparents. He joined the par-

ty as a teen, was active in college

and then went to work for a scion

of the state party’s progressive

wing. He was elected to Parlia-

ment on his 33rd birthday.

(Biden entered Congress when

he was 29.)

Unlike Biden, who made little

secret of his desire to run for

president, Albanese expressed

no interest in leading his party or

country for almost two decades,

according to biographer and

journalist Karen Middleton. He

steadily rose up the ranks, help-

ing to hold a minority Labor

government together. When La-

bor lost the election in 2013, a

senior party figure urged him to

have a crack at the leadership,

but Albanese lost. He got another

chance in 2019, after Labor suf-

fered a shock upset.

“The party was so demoralized

that no one else was willing to

put their hand up,” said Strangio.

Last year, Albanese likened his

own chances to those of Biden,

who had just been inaugurated.

“There were people in this

room who predicted that Donald

Trump would win reelection,” he

said in a news conference. “But a

bloke who was a former deputy

leader and an experienced politi-

cian, who had held a wide range

of portfolios and who was some-

one who was underestimated by

some, he is now president of the

United States.”

Like Biden, he was criticized

for appearing happy to let the

election be a referendum on his

opponent. And he was ques-

tioned for running a small-target

campaign in which he pared

back some of his party’s more

ambitious policies, including

cuts to carbon emissions.

Albanese’s modest climate

strategy hurt him with some

voters on Election Day and

helped propel Greens and inde-

pendents into Parliament. But it

also enabled Labor to keep some

key coal-country seats on its way

to what, as of Sunday, seemed

like a small majority.

“It was a gamble,” said Stran-

gio. “But the gamble paid off.”

It remains to be seen how

ambitious Albanese will be on

climate, especially if he doesn’t

need the help of Greens and

climate-focused independents.

He played the issue both ways

during the campaign, calling for

investment in renewable energy

but also backing new coal mines.

Even if he remains cautious,

his climate policy will be more

ambitious than that of outgoing

conservative Scott Morrison,

whose slow walk to committing

to net zero by 2050 frustrated the

Biden administration.

“Biden will appreciate an Aus-

tralian government that has

more ambition on climate,” said

Fullilove. He said the president

would also welcome a reset of

relations between Australia and

France — countries that fell out

under Morrison over his han-

dling of a deal with Britain and

the United States for nuclear-

powered submarines.

Fullilove said it will be impor-

tant to see if there is a “meeting

of the minds” when Biden and

Albanese speak one on one at the

Quad summit.

“Because Biden is an old-

school politician, I think the first

meeting matters,” he said.

Australia finds itself on the

front line of the new geopolitics.

The Biden administration sees it

as a key ally in pushing back on

growing Chinese assertiveness in

the region. China launched a

trade conflict with Australia two

years ago. And it recently struck

a security agreement with the

Solomon Islands that some ana-

lysts fear could lead to a Chinese

military base roughly 1,000 miles

from Australian shores. (China

and the Solomon Islands deny

that is a possibility.)

“An Australian historian said

famously that we suffer from the

tyranny of distance,” Fullilove

said. “But now, in fact, we face

the predicament of proximity.

The world is rushing toward us.”

The world is now rushing

toward Albanese, who will meet

the American president on his

second day in office.

“It’s quite the initiation,” Full-

ilove said.

Australia’s new prime minister t ells a familiar story

Raised a working-class Catholic, Anthony Albanese has a lot in common with President Biden. They’ll meet s oon at the Quad summit in Tokyo.

parallel paths when it comes to

combating climate change.

“I think there is the potential

for Biden and Albanese to strike

up an important personal rela-

tionship,” said Michael Fullilove,

executive director of the Lowy

Institute, a Sydney think tank.

“They are both individuals

from modest backgrounds who

have lived extraordinary lives,”

he said. “And for Biden, the

personal is political.”

Albanese touched on his work-

ing-class origins in his victory

speech.

“It says a lot about our great

country that a son of a single

mum who was a disability pen-

sioner, who grew up in public

housing down the road in Camp-

erdown, can stand before you

tonight as Australia’s prime min-

ister,” he told a boisterous crowd.

He often says he was raised

with three faiths: the Catholic

Church, the Labor Party and the

South Sydney Rabbitohs, a pro-

fessional rugby team based in a

traditionally working-class

neighborhood not far from

where Albanese grew up.

As a child, Albanese was told

that his parents had met when

his mother was traveling over-

seas and that his father had died

shortly afterward. It was only

when he was a teenager that his

mother told him the truth.

“We sat down just after dinner

one night,” he told the Australian

Broadcasting Corp. “It was very

traumatic for her, I think, to tell

me that in fact that wasn’t the

case, that my father might still be

alive, that she’d met him over-

seas, fallen pregnant with me,

had told him and he had said,

basically, that he was betrothed

to someone from the town in

Italy where he was from.”

“I think that whole guilt asso-

ciated with having a child out of

wedlock in 1963 as a young

Catholic woman was a big deal,”

he said. “Hence, the extent to

which she had gone to in terms of

adopting my father’s name. She

wore an engagement and a wed-

ding ring. She — the whole

family just believed this story.”

DEAN LEWINS/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Anthony Albanese leaves his Sydney house with his partner, Jodie Haydon, on Sunday. He was to be

sworn in Monday as Australia’s prime minister after defeating incumbent Scott Morrison.

“He didn’t envisage

himself as a leader until

as late as 2013. Now

here he is, prime

minister of the country

after just one term as

opposition leader. That

is quite striking.”

Paul Strangio, political historian

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