Writing Crikey’s annual politicians of the year is usually relatively easy once every three years: it’s hard to avoid handing it to whoever won the federal election that year, although in 2016 I gave it to Pauline Hanson who, like a cancer we thought we’d beaten, once again defiled the body politic, and metastasises to this day. Crikey readers were outraged, believing the nomination of the most effective politician should be the one they like the most.
No such luck this year. How can it not be Anthony Albanese, who developed a plan to beat Scott Morrison, stuck to it when progressives were angrily demanding he start throwing the toys out of the cot, and won government?
Albanese was patient, backed his political judgment, used the Rudd formula of keeping a small-target strategy where he didn’t want a fight and going large where he did want one, and when he stumbled, he admitted it, took guard again and waited for the next delivery. It’s hard for Labor to win elections from opposition in Australia against News Corp and a generally hostile media, which is why it happens so rarely, but now Albanese’s name’s on the list.
That wouldn’t have counted for much if his prime ministership had started badly, but he cruised into office and kept his momentum going, looking more and more comfortable as he began delivering on his agenda with major legislation and a faultless performance internationally, backed a by a strong team that, Richard Marles apart, so far looks competent and productive.
That so many of them already have substantial ministerial experience (and Jim Chalmers was in the thick of it with Wayne Swan from 2007-13) has helped with the sense of adults in the room, but Albanese has come to power with more than a quarter of a century in Parliament. No wonder he knows the virtues of patience.
Honourable mentions
In a disastrous year for the Liberals, Tasmanian Bridget Archer was one of the few Liberals to get a 2PP swing toward her in Bass, and deservedly so. Archer not merely joined other moderate MPs in voting against Morrison’s disastrous religious discrimination bill early in the year but bravely flew solo in backing Helen Haines’ bill for a national integrity commission in late 2021.
Since the election she has again defied her party by backing Labor’s stronger emissions reduction target, and supporting the censure of Morrison, the man who had bullied her after she had crossed the floor in 2021. The party may talk about being a broad church and supporting the right of MPs to cross the floor, but the reality is quite different. Archer has guts, something noticeably lacking in the Liberal Party of recent years.
2021’s Politician of the Year, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean, had another excellent year. You’ll have to look long and hard to find a budget as good as the one he unveiled in June. One of Australia’s historic economic documents, it centred the economic trajectory of Australia’s largest state firmly around women, while initiating important tax reform and maintaining fiscal discipline and Kean’s signature commitment to decarbonisation.
In an era when we reflexively bemoan the quality of our politicians, Kean continued to show public office could be used effectively and productively. And he did so in a way that was completely consistent with his own party’s history — a lesson many other Liberals in Canberra and in other states would do well to heed.
Love him or hate him — he seems to inspire only those two emotions — Dan Andrews scored a remarkable victory in the November election. While he benefited from a truly awful Victorian Liberal Party, to rack up two landslide wins elevates Andrews to the esteemed company of Labor deities like Neville Wran and Bob Hawke.
Yes, there continue to be significant questions about the integrity of his government — but Victorians didn’t exactly go to the polls without extensive media coverage (including from Crikey) of literally every stumble that Andrews had made during the past four years. It didn’t make a shred of difference.
Dishonourable mentions
Well, there’s only one, isn’t there? We’ve expended enough words on him this year even though he hasn’t been prime minister since May. Let’s not waste more of them on the man who effortlessly supplanted Tony Abbott as Australia’s worst-ever leader.
Who would you have chosen? Have we missed any? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
