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.
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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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