Anthony Albanese shows he’s a big-picture empath – more like Hawke than Rudd or Gillard

‘Albanese feels as much as he calculates – a Hawke trait. As he walked past me into the lecture room, the warmth of the welcome hit Albanese in the solar plexus.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

It’s long forgotten now, but Anthony Albanese arrived in federal politics in 1996 after a campaign some commentators didn’t think he could win.

While Grayndler was an otherwise safe Labor seat, aircraft noise was the big issue in Sydney’s inner west and the young Labor activist was up against a candidate from the No Aircraft Noise party. Tim Gartrell ran the 1996 campaign, and because Albanese likes concentric circles, he coaxed Gartrell back to run his office when he took the opposition leadership.