Anthony Albanese is celebrating 30 years in parliament, marking a journey that has taken him from a scrappy left-wing firebrand to Australia's prime minister. His arrival in 1996 coincided with John Howard's victory and the end of the Hawke-Keating era, a night when his supporters famously drank the Marrickville Portugal Madeira Club dry.
On Sunday, the Labor leader held a more subdued celebration at the Marrickville District Lawn Tennis Club, attended by branch members, old friends and cabinet ministers. His wife Jodie Haydon, son Nathan and dog Toto mingled with guests, while vintage campaign posters decorated the walls. The event came less than 24 hours after Israel and the US launched strikes against Iran, which the Labor government supported, and at the end of a week in which Albanese voiced his contempt for Islamic State-linked Australian women stuck in Syria with their children.
The anniversary has prompted questions about how much Albanese has changed. Once a left faction warrior who opposed the Iraq war and hardline border policies, he now faces criticism that his government is moving too cautiously on social reform. Political commentator Chris Wallace said his transformation from 'scrappy Labor Left activist to smooth Tory-curious Labor prime minister' was a mystery to many, explained by a 'transactional focus on the acquisition and maintenance of power first, and Labor values and policy ambition second.'
Albanese joined the Labor Party in 1979 while still at school, later becoming a staffer for Tom Uren and an assistant NSW Labor secretary. As an MP, he rose through committees and backrooms to become leader of the house and infrastructure minister, before briefly serving as deputy prime minister in 2013. Scarred by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, he has stressed the need for Labor to stay in power over multiple terms since becoming opposition leader in 2019 and prime minister in 2022.
Longtime supporters recall a loyal and genuine man. Labor life member John Mara said Albanese had 'all the characteristics I like' – working-class, with a good brain and no airs. Damian Spruce, president of Labor's Petersham branch, noted that Albanese mentored people in student and Young Labor politics. Not everyone predicted his rise; psephologist Malcolm Mackerras thought a minor party would seize his seat of Grayndler in 1996, but Labor held it. Albanese later lost the leadership ballot to Bill Shorten in 2013 despite winning the rank-and-file vote, before finally taking the top job in 2022.
