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Albo seems to be everything that ScoMo isn’t

Who is this bloke called Albo?

In the Australian manner of receiving a title by plunking an “o” on the end of one’s name, Anthony Albanese became Albo. But what do we know about the man other than he mispronounces a word or two?

Wikipedia tells us that:

“… he was born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019. He has been a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Grayndler since 1996. Albanese was deputy prime minister of Australia under the second Rudd Government in 2013 and a Cabinet Minister in the Rudd and Gillard Governments from 2007 to 2013.

Albanese was born in Sydney and attended St Mary’s Cathedral College before going to the University of Sydney to study economics. He joined the Labor Party as a student, and before entering parliament, worked as a party official and research officer. Albanese was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1996 election, winning the seat of Grayndler in New South Wales.

He was first appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 and served in several roles, eventually becoming Manager of Opposition Business in 2006.

After Labor’s victory in the 2007 election, Albanese was appointed Leader of the House; he was also made Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.

In the subsequent leadership tensions between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard from 2010 to 2013, Albanese was publicly critical of the conduct of both, calling for unity.

While serving in the Gillard Government, Albanese supported the introduction of carbon pricing and voted, along with the rest of the Labor Party, to establish the Clean Energy Act 2011, which instituted a carbon pricing scheme in Australia. After the Abbott Government abolished the system in July 2014, Albanese stated that carbon pricing was no longer needed, as “the circumstances have changed”.

Albanese is a prominent backer of renewable energy and has declared that Australia’s “long-term future lies in renewable energy sources”.

Personal life

In 2000, Albanese married Carmel Tebbutt, a future Deputy Premier of New South Wales. They have one son named Nathan. Albanese and Tebbutt separated in January 2019. In June 2020, it was reported that Albanese was in a new relationship with Jodie Haydon.

Albanese describes himself as “half-Italian and half-Irish” and a “non-practicising Catholic”. He is also a music fan who reportedly once went to a Pogues gig in a Pixies shirt and intervened as Transport Minister to save a Dolly Parton tour from bureaucratic red tape.

As a lifelong supporter of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, he was a board member of the club from 1999 to 2002 and influential in the fight to have the club readmitted to the National Rugby League competition.”

In all its brevity, there is my rehashed profile of Anthony Albanese. There is more, of course, if you want to follow the link provided, but I’m trying to make a point here. I keep searching. I visit his web page, where he tells the story of being raised by a single mum who wanted him to have a better life than she had.

Then I peruse his parliamentary web page. No luck there. Very mundane stuff.

A Google search “Anthony Albanese Scandals” then takes me to news.com.au, where I find that; “Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese was involved in an awkward exchange during a grilling about a veteran MP involved in a scandal in Victoria.”

Albanese had refused to intervene.

I went back to my search for any sort of scandal concerning Albo. I’m led to The Daily Mail (England edition) to read that:

“It was revealed in June last year that Opposition leader Anthony Albanese had found love again with Jodie Haydon, after his devastating split from wife Carmel Tebbutt.

The politician previously revealed the break-up with his ex-wife Carmel, 57, in January 2019 wasn’t his decision.”

“One last go,” I said to myself. My final search told me that the son of the Albanese’s turned 20 this month.

Wow.

I cannot think of a politician with so little scandal. I think to myself; “What on earth will the conservatives do. How could you possibly trust a leader without a scandal or two behind him?”

My search yielded no corruption, no abundance of lying or lack of truth. There is none of the Morrison arrogance nor self-entitlement. No question of him being untrustworthy. Nothing to raise a scare campaign about. No mistakes, bungles or stuff ups. I shall leave it there. Once one has made one’s point, it is best to leave it.

Albo seems to be everything that Scomo isn’t.

My thought for the day

The way you think and feel about yourself affects every aspect of your life. When you love, accept, respect and approve of yourself, you validate your existence.

 

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37 comments

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  1. Terence Mills

    My worry is that this nice bloke may not have enough mongrel cunning in him to beat Morrison.

    To get across the line in March (I’m seeing a March election as more and more likely) Labor have got to start using their team to greater effect : on a one for one basis the Labor shadow ministry is streets ahead of the dodgy coalition crew.

    In particular, Labor need to be getting the likes of Tanya Plibersek out there. She carries a great deal of ‘street cred’ and as the longest serving woman in the parliament she has the runs on the board.

    John, are you going to do a bio on Scomo ? That would be interesting.

  2. Florence

    Watching Albo over the years, I have never seen any evidence he is a pushover. Spent most of his time in Parliament as a competent leader of the house. Backed down to no one. I see Albo in the mode of Whitlam’s leader of the house, Fred Daly. Albo openly supported Rudd, on principle, believing the party shouldn’t remove a PM. He then worked closely with Gillard. IMO, this shows strength, character & ethics.

    He has something this government hasn’t—an ability to look to the future, the patience to wait until it is time to act.

  3. John Lord

    Terence. The election would be over and Albo installed as PM before l got it finished.

  4. leefe

    More importantly, it seems that Albo isn’t almost everything that ScoMoFo is.

  5. Cynthia Mitchell

    When he is speaking, I wish he didn’t sound like he was reading 3 words at a time from a teleprompter.

  6. Joycelyn

    LORD (not the author – he would only save commos) help us if Albanese ever becomes Leader of this country. He is nothing but a fool – each way Albo. Backflips at every turn.
    Do you not remember him calling older people who were in the 2011 Convoy of No Confidence to Canberra – ORANISED BY THE FREIGHT CARRIERS OF AUSTRALIA in 2011 when ALBANESE referred to older people taking part in the convoy as “INCONTINENTS”.
    And what about the brothel story about him Overseas? You didn’t look very far did you, John Lord? What were the people protesting about in front of his electorate office around that time as well?
    As for your being named “Independent Media”, it should be called ALMO: “Australian Leftist Media Outlet”.

  7. wam

    Wow, lord, a terrific read today.
    Albo is the sort of politician, as the grass roots laborites knew, who was perfect for 2013. Ostensibly he is too quiet for 2022 but scummo has given enough ammo to have a chance of victory at the ballot box. Marketing decisions and timing of labor attacks are vital and slow releases starting now is warranted. In our two seats, Luke and, new candidate, Marion, have made a move at attending schools and functions before the election, on facebook and I think their shop fronts deserve a few notices
    You are right, cuckoo, but sadly the rabbott and juliar has made much of the electorate hostile to women as PM or plibersek would be a great leader.
    ps
    My darling was at a meeting with albo, as the local gov minister, and as they came in a bloke was switching seats with her and albo strode up and corrected the seating.

  8. Kerri

    Does anyone know if ScoMo has had any long term affiliations with anything other than his church??

  9. GL

    The LNP dirt team, and The Murdoch, must be tearing their hair trying to find something, anything, they can personally smear Albo with as the election looms ever closer. Seems to me that about the only thing have they left is the old and tiresome “guilt by way of association” stunts.

  10. Phil Pryor

    With new found care and sensitivity (hah) , “Albo” seems an ordinary enough, pleasant, competent, unexciting, carefully considerate politician with the makings of better and more. The Current P M, a Pustular Misfit, is a negativity, of a blackhole monstrosity, core rotten with misguided superstition, fantasy, fraud and a fake “gospel” of egotistically charged lies and misleading dogma. So??

  11. Michael Taylor

    Joycelyn, I would encourage you to consult a dictionary and look up the meaning of the word ‘independent’. You may find the result very similar to what I found in the Oxford Dictionary: ‘Independent’ is an adjective that means…

    Free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority.
    Not depending on another for livelihood or subsistence.
    Capable of thinking or acting for oneself.
    Not connected with another or with each other; separate.

    Yep, that sounds like The AIMN.

  12. Josephus

    The poorly written aggressive posting by some troll does its poster no credit. Ad hominem slurs are neither here nor there. Everyone but me has skeletons in the proverbial cupboard. I do have ideological concerns though. Why does this party proclaim itself for climate measures while also continuing coal subsidies and new mines? Why the illegal and cruel offshore prison camps for refugees, for years on end? And yes, why no female deputy? And what about Assange, collaery et al ?
    We are too getting too much like Myanmar for comfort.

  13. Phil Pryor

    Who is Jocelyn, what is she? Frustrated? Betrayed? Pray tell us of Morrison the Maggot, a poxed disease in one morbidity.

  14. Michael

    Albo has real faith in a cognicant civil society which when it recognises will protect itself from systemic, blatent, institutionalised highjacking of democracy by greed for power for the few leaving the rest flailing.

    Scotty’s faith, on the other hand, is in a never ending, all encompassing mlm fairy story and is beyond the point of no return.

  15. GL

    Jocelyn, Member of the LNP Smear Squad?

  16. Kaye Lee

    In my opinion, Labor’s strength is its team. Don’t play the leader game. Let ScoMo present himself as the emperor with no clothes whilst stressing the qualities of the Labor Ministers that will replace the Coalition’s dead wood and what their priorities will be..

    The Coalition are trying to present Albanese as weak. That is so easily turned against them. Diplomacy isn’t weakness. Negotiation and compromise isn’t weakness. Respectful relationships are not a sign of weakness. Transparency and accountability isn’t weakness. Teamwork isn’t weakness. Listening to experts isn’t weakness.

    We have ScoMo who thinks God put him there and Labor who are a team with ideas and the competency to enact them…..I hope.

  17. Michael Taylor

    Kaye, the LNP and the Murdoch media will resort to their usual claim: Labor is weak on border protection. But I don’t think people are going to be bothered about that anymore.

  18. Michael Taylor

    I might have spoken too soon. That bastion of truth and credibility, The Courier Mail, suggests that China would be pleased if Labor won the election because – and this wasn’t exactly what was written – Labor would be weak on border protection. Protection from Chines battleships, that is.

  19. Josephus

    We need a list of recent immigrants or onetime boat people who have become important , compassionate Ozzies. In my case they got two PhDs for nothing and one child is also one. Ok we weren’t refugees but I would love to swap some of the convict descendant idiots for the educated endangered in their bike home countries.
    Two anecdotes:
    1 a white Man one nation voter sneers at immigrants. I point out his white skin and English surname.
    2 in an old peoples’ home an old woman complains about “immigrants”, presumably the dusky hued sort. I look about me. All the staff are southern Asian women, as good natured as they are underpaid.
    QED.

  20. Josephus

    Sorry not bike home countries but just home countries

  21. Michael Taylor

    Josephus, or like in my mother’s case – an immigrant family, illegal immigrants, btw – who had three brothers who fought for Australia in WW2.

  22. Peter F

    Remember the “Reds under the beds” scare campaign of the really ’60s when the coalition got in by one seat? The last sat declared was that of Moreton , which was won by the Liberal member, Jim Killen, on COMMUNIST party preferences. They still want to drag out their fear campaigns. How desperate can they be?

  23. Canguro

    This straw man argument about the threat from the Chinese is an absolute hangover from the earlier days when the white man ruled absolutely within this land and the threat of anything ‘different’ loomed large in the paranoid fantasies of both the elected and the electoring, perhaps driven – and others will have a deeper perspective than I do on this – by the influx of Chinese following the gold discoveries. Or just the differences – custom, style, language, work ethic and so on – were enough to trigger the xenophobic reaction.

    The xenophobia persist to this day, albeit muted by recognition of its ugliness and rank appeal to the primitive, but it’s there, for sure. Witness the initial reaction in early 2020 to the presence of Covid19 in this country. Or Dutton’s war-mongering, or the pliant media’s echoing of the dogs of war drum beats.

    China has no interest in land grabs or martial exercises outside of its immediate region. Given the historic facts of the Concessions of the mid-19th C., it’s perfectly understandable that they, China, are determined that such egregious acts never recur. But, to invade and take over other sovereign nations…. forgeddit! They aren’t playing that game.

  24. wam

    Jocelyn, like millions of Australians, is sadly of the opinion that any media, who mention labor in a positive manner, is a left wing organisation. This is with no idea what left wing means.
    Here media feeds her fear and gives her no chance to hear labor.
    But I bet she knows a repentant socialist who repeats the old adage no dole will get the bludgers working.
    There is nothing in her head that is able to be changed. Just smile and let her go.

  25. Terence Mills

    Morrison (and Perrottet) have chosen this moment ,for political reasons it seems, to insist that border closures, shutdowns, masks and social distancing are no longer necessary and we can rely on people taking personal responsibility.

    This at a time when COVID Omicron is raging overseas and will in Australia if we are not careful.

    These people don’t have a good track record when it comes to common sense and maybe WA are right in keeping their borders closed until we know more about this variant : it’s called the precautionary principle.

  26. GL

    Terence,

    “…and will in Australia if we are not careful.”

    We’ve gone past the “if” stage already and can only wait and see how fast Omicron infections spread. Bluntly, Scummo doesn’t really give a shit, what with the election looming. He will say lots of words, spray the country incessantly with his bloody “‘strayans standing together” bullshit and do bugger all else. Dunceinuci will continue trying to frighten the masses with his ongoing China/Labor scare campaign. Is there any real need to continue mentioning what the rest of Crony Co. Inc. will be doing? Business as usual.

    Oops, and lurking in a very dark corner of the whole LNP web of criminality, corruption lies, deceit, rorts, etc, etc, will be The Rupert tugging on the strands to keep it all on the boil.

  27. Stephengb

    Jocelyn
    You arexof course entitled to your opinion and yes it has been punblished.

    It seems to me that your accusation, that the AIMN is some sort of Leftist media, is proved ‘wrong’, otherwise your little spay would not have been published.

    As a matter of fact, I am an egalitarian (a Lefty) I do criticise Labor often and without mercy as and when they do and or say something that I disagree with, I am not merely a drone repeating nonsense gleaned from the Murdoch propaganda rags.

    I will vote for a candidate whom I believe will cast a vote in parliament that improves the life for all of us, (the many) not merely the few.

    Do yourself a favour and look at all of the nation building achievements of the Left versus the Right stance Federation. Not who happened to be in power when it was finished but who was in power to start it !

  28. Terence Mills

    Jocelyn

    You said “And what about the brothel story about him Overseas? You didn’t look very far did you, John Lord?”

    This smacks of Liberal dirt and rumour mongering similar to the ‘drops’ that Liberal party stooges placed in social media about Bill Shorten before the last election and the historical rape charges – all of which had been investigated by police and no charges arose.

    As regards the Albanese visit to a Thai massage parlour in 2011, this was in his electorate and he didn’t deny it and as I recall it was specifically for a bad back. He still has massages periodically !

    Yes ! I know whenever there is a mention of Thai massage we are meant to roll our eyes wink,wink, nudge, nudge.

    Over the years I and my family have stayed at various Thai resorts in Chiang Mai, Phuket and one of the island resorts. In every case the resorts offer Thai massage, frequently complementary – that’s what Thailand is known for !

    My wife and I always had a Thai massage , the doesn’t make us perverts .

    I don’t know how often you post here but you give every appearance of being a Liberal troll – prove that you are not by joining the conversation.

  29. HENRY RODRIGUES

    Whenever a character comparison is attempted between a coalition member and a Labor member, in this case Scummo and Albo, insinuations , dark stories, imagined sex adventures in salubrious surrounding, ( of the kind fat George frequents) pop up, planted by the dirty ops group of the Liberal party and pushed and squeezed by the MSM (Murdoch’s slimy maggots).They bank on the appearances that Scummo’s personal photo team present to the voters of him in fervent bullshitting in the church of aspiring, upwardly mobile knob heads. Jocelyn would have more credibility, when he or she, uncovers the truth about the nice Mr C. Porter and who donated $1m to his defense fund.

  30. Kaye Lee

    HENRY,

    In 2011, now Senator James McGrath paid $3075 for a dirt file on Labor government MPs.

    The LNP dirt file detailed a minister’s epilepsy and childhood adoption, claims about some politicians’ sexuality, sex lives, drinking habits and health matters, and included details of the schools of the children of government MPs.

    He got “strongly reprimanded” , then gifted a Senate spot. Obvious potential.

    https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/money-changed-hands/news-story/a6223097d94f9f91212dbd5c42009e19

  31. Michael Taylor

    Prior to the 2007 federal election my department was asked to put together a dirt file on Therese Rein (Kevin Rudd’s wife) who through her job search agencies was a client of the department. Being apolitical, we refused. (And being a department full of Lefties the refusal was given with great delight.)

    I don’t know who asked for the dirt file but our Minister at the time was Joe Hockey. I assume the request would have came from him, though I don’t know that for certain.

  32. Henry Rodrigues

    Kaye Lee….. Ah McGrath, him again, Obviously a long time resident of the coalition cesspool, well adapted to swimming about in filth and garbage, an appropriate addition to the coalition team of senate muckrakers, there for the 6 year stint, well paid and useless for anything else, like Pauline, Erica, Malcolm and other assorted numbskulls.

    Michael….. if there is one guy who I loathe, it is Fat Hockey. Since he couldn’t even count to eleven, he was using politics as a stepping stone to make his fortune elsewhere, in the USA. Very lucrative pickings, with the right attitude ( nastiness) and the right crowd ( Trumps’s circle of corruption)

  33. Michael Taylor

    Henry, I’d cringe when Hockey would stand up in Parliament beating his chest over his honesty while calling the opposition liars, and each accusation would end with a shouty disgust of what he thinks of liars.

    I’ve worked for a number of politicians and there are only two that I’d call deliberate liars: John Howard and Joe Hockey.

    Hence the cringe.

  34. Zoe

    Jocelyn is – Stepford wife.

  35. Keyston Slater

    So it seems that Albo’s flaw, according to some, is that he isn’t as arrogant as the current butthole.

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