Published: 13:11 BST, 15 August 2026 | Updated: 13:11 BST, 15 August 2026
What was the point of voting out Scott Morrison if Anthony Albanese is just going to wear his skin?
Australians didn't dump Morrison merely to give Albo the keys to the Lodge. They were sick to death of a PM who treated public policy as a PR exercise, promises as disposable slogans, and facts as minor inconveniences to be smirked away.
Voters wanted change, and Albo promised them that. It hasn't transpired.
When cornered, Morrison would deny, deflect, and gaslight until the electorate surrendered to sheer exhaustion. Albo is now doing much the same thing.
Albo diagnosed Morrison's pathology perfectly in opposition, accusing the then PM of saying 'whatever is convenient at the time, regardless of what the facts are'.
Fast forward to today, and that diagnosis reads like a devastating autobiography in the making. Albo hasn't just adopted Morrison's playbook; he's weaponised it.
It shines through when Albo refuses to apologise for apparent sexism, or when he breaks election commitments or responds to questions with obfuscation and spin rather than straight answers.
Albo's weaponisation of Morrison's playbook shines through when he refuses to apologise for apparent sexism. (He is pictured with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi)
Maintaining the Western Australia GST deal is a more serious policy example of Albo mirroring Morrison, with dire fiscal consequences for the country.
In 2018, Morrison engineered a crude political bribe, guaranteeing WA a minimum GST share that now elevates Australia's richest state to the same per-person allocation as NSW, irrespective of the wealth fast-flowing royalties deliver the west.
Morrison didn't repair a broken national system; he bought political protection in the west, using state parochialism to buy votes.
The result hands WA billions more than the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission says it needs to provide comparable services. This isn't horizontal fiscal equalisation – it's welfare for the wealthy, subsidised by the rest of the country. Now facilitated by Albo, to maintain his electoral advantage in WA.
But because Albo doesn't want the rest of the country to lose out so that WA gets more, he raids the Commonwealth coffers to top up the GST pool such that WA receives more than its fair share. So other states don't lose out.
It's one of the reasons the federal budget is in deficit and national debt keeps growing. The cost of maintaining Morrison's original sin is heading towards $60billion over a decade.