Only a few weeks ago, Time Magazine selected Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
The Labor leader’s moody black-and-white portrait was published alongside the likes of US rapper Doja Cat, Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In a glowing endorsement penned by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Albanese was praised for progressive social and climate policies that embody "the idea that no matter who you are or where you come from, you should have every chance to succeed in life”.
But are we any better off since Albanese's Labor government won the federal election?
Twelve months ago, Albanese buoyed by supporters chanting, “Albo, Albo, Albo”.
“I want every parent to be able to tell their child no matter where you live or where you come from, in Australia the doors of opportunity are open to us all,” he committed to the nation in response.
The positive coverage was widespread; DJ Albo with his penchant for Aussie band T-shirts, a footy-loving daggy dad with a trusty canine companion Toto, and an ambition to lift the nation’s standards.
Fast forward to now, and political and economic reality of governing is biting.
The better off test
“Do you feel better off today than you did a year ago?” Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor asked the audience at the National Press Club address this week.
Light on alternative policy offerings one year into a wintry opposition stretch, he was keen to highlight the economic plight of many in the nation.
, and the people on the lowest rungs of Australia's precarious rental and mortgage markets are being hammered by a series of interest rate rises deliberately blunt in their effect.
The papers say Labor’s promised real wage rise is coming, but that requires a forecast nose-dive in the inflation rate that is not a certainty.
This weekend's anniversary pieces were supposed to be driven by images of Anthony Albanese holding court in his hometown, with a hand-picked coterie of world leaders to burnish his reputation as a statesman.
But the months-long efforts to prepare the Sydney Opera House for the leaders of the US, India and Japan, evaporated in an instant on the eve his first year in the political hot seat when.
Anthony Albanese, Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo last May. Source: AAP, AP / Evan Vucci
The post-pandemic economic gut-punch has hit many working people hard. Their disposable income has been soaked up by the cost of filling up their cars, doing the weekly food shop and paying their home loans.
At the same time, Australian taxpayers are coughing up in extraordinary numbers over the coming decades, the funds are being sucked back down into the to keep an equilibrium in the Pacific arms race.
All politics is local
This year has triggered a roller coaster of global navigation.
Anthony Albanese whirled around an Indian cricket pitch in a golden chariot with his counterpart Narendra Modi while executing plans to diversify the nation’s economic partnerships.
Anthony Albanese and Narendra Modi do a lap of honour at a Test match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad in March. Source: Getty / Robert Cianflone
He’s pressed the pedals on a bamboo bike, side by side with the Indonesian President Joko Widodo to help promote the decarbonisation of the international economy.
There was the secret mission in an armoured train reflecting on the devastation while standing by a mass grave in Bucha.
Anthony Albanese tours damaged residential areas in Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE
All the way, Albanese has been seeking to advance free trade deals, closer ties and looser tariffs and more ways to boost the bottom line of the nation’s economy.
But always waiting at the end of the steps when the plane lands back on Australian tarmac is that question, are people better off now?
The battle on home turf
In parliament, Anthony Albanese is squeezed on both sides. Without a majority in the Senate, he has to find a foothold with the Opposition or bring The Greens and two other crossbenchers on side.
The Coalition has been blocking on many fronts, keen to brand measures it doesn’t like as taxes, pushing for more punitive policy for those on taxpayer benefits and arguing the nation must back the future of coal, oil, gas industries and even embrace nuclear energy.
At the same time, The Greens are marching on to the end of the increasing rental queues to hand out promotional pamphlets for their party and are using their balance of power majority in the Senate to try and end the oil and gas industries and demand vast increases in tax to pay for billions in extra social spending.
Common ground is shrinking, and each side is digging in as a campaigning tool.
Albanese promised a kindler, gentler parliament but frustrations over legislative limbo are starting to bubble to the surface.
The year has contained a series of clashing narratives.
A government sticking up for the poor and downtrodden proposing to boost the unemployment benefit, that’s also locked itself in to delivering on Stage Three tax cuts for higher income earners.
A prime minister who supports a future republic, but is a willing participant in the Commonwealth’s most significant moments including the Queen's funeral and the Coronation of King Charles in all its historically oddball splendour.
And a government arguing it doesn’t want a big Australia while the latest record migration forecasts leave room for
The Coalition is hoping Anthony Albanese’s approach is losing middle Australia.
Anthony Albanese during Question Time at Parliament. Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH
Labor’s success in stealing the Victorian seat of Aston away from the Liberal Party in the recent by-election is one measure of public sentiment. The next local poll in Queensland after the resignation of former Liberal Minister Stuart Robert will be closely scrutinised.
Anthony Albanese at the Garma Festival in northeast Arnhem Land last year. Source: AAP / AARON BUNCH
Albanese has welded his political success to his emotionally charged support for a Voice to Parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This ambition folding back into his commitment to ensure every Australian has equal opportunity to succeed.
It will take a referendum later this year with a majority of voters, plus a majority of states, to deliver on this body to advise the government and the Cabinet on laws and policies that affect Indigenous people.
A successful “yes” vote from the Australian people will be one test of whether Albanese is as influential as Time Magazine perceives him to be.
Anna Henderson is the Chief Political Correspondent for SBS World News.
