The kid from Camperdown and the boy from Bronte: a glimpse into the very different Sydney upbringings of Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese | KnottMatthew
The two men were born five years and 10 kilometres apart: the first in Sydney’s gritty inner west, the latter in the scenic eastern beaches. One stayed planted in his childhood stomping ground as it gentrified around him, shifting a mere 15-minute drive westward during his adulthood. The other migrated south when a golden political opportunity arose, embracing a new cultural milieu and severing ties with the slice of the city that formed him.
Reflecting the city’s identity as a mosaic of distinct enclaves, rather than a homogenous whole, the Albanese-Morrison contest pits two competing visions of Sydney against each other. Densely populated inner city versus sprawling suburbia. Working class versus middle class. Townhouses versus McMansions. Progressivism versus conservatism. The cardinal red and myrtle green of the Rabbitohs versus the Sharks’ blue, white and black.
To most voters, Morrison is closely associated with his current home in the Sutherland Shire – a connection he reinforces with his very public adoration of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks rugby league team. The prime minister rarely dwells on his upbringing in beachside Bronte: it’s not something he highlights in his campaign advertisements or speeches. Bronte serves no useful narrative purpose for Morrison nowadays, except as a place he left behind and no longer identifies with.
Albanese, by contrast, loves to talk about what Americans would call his “log cabin story”: the tale of his humble upbringings in Camperdown public housing. The opposition leader, 59, has mentioned his working-class childhood in all three of his prime-time budget reply addresses. At his mother’s insistence, Albanese was educated in the NSW Catholic systemic system: first St Joseph’s Primary down the road in Camperdown, and then St Mary’s Cathedral College in the city. By early adulthood he had stopped attending church, although he still describes himself as a cultural Catholic. He became enmeshed in Labor left activism while studying economics at the University of Sydney.
After serving as Tourism Australia chief executive and NSW Liberal Party director, Morrison leapt at a chance to enter parliament when his mentor, Bruce Baird, announced his retirement from the safe seat of Cook in 2007. He and Jenny moved to the area ahead of the local preselection ballot. He was thrashed by Michael Towke in the initial voting but Morrison eventually triumphed after a torrid internal battle that remains controversial over a decade later.
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