Anthony Albanese’s government must learn from Labor’s last breakup with electoral power

Prime minister Anthony Albanese addresses colleagues during a party caucus at Parliament House. Most of Labor’s frontbench lived through the party’s last exit from power. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

For all the tabloids’ orchestrated pompom waving throughout the election campaign, to their credit Anthony Albanese’s marriage breakup was one place they refused to go.

Albanese’s standing as a divorced man in a relatively new relationship is a first for an Australian prime minister, but could also serve as a metaphor for his incoming government and, indeed, the entire 47th parliament.