The leaking of a text message from the prime minister’s chief of staff will trigger discussion about a possible election in 2024.
A leaked all-staff message from Anthony Albanese’s top adviser has announced a new senior staff member has been appointed “as we enter the election year”, opening the door to the federal government heading to the polls in 2024.
Earlier this month, Albanese said, “I think governments as a general rule should serve the full term. And that means an election in 2025”. But the timing of a federal election is ultimately up to the prime minister to determine and the message from Albanese’s chief of staff Tim Gartrell to staff in the prime minister’s office announced veteran Labor staffer David Epstein will join the office in the new position of principal private secretary. Then-prime minister Kevin Rudd and treasurer Wayne Swan in Martin Place with the PM’s chief of staff David Epstein at right on Tuesday, January 15, 2008.News.com.au , Gartrell stated that “this is an important role as we enter the election year and David is well-qualified for the role, having worked for Labor in a range of senior roles over five successive governments and opposition”. Gartrell stated that Epstein would be part of the leadership group in the prime minister’s office and the role would be to “identify emerging and focus on how they are best managed”.Comment has been sought from the prime minister’s office. The federal government ended 2023 in the political doldrums after the defeat of the Voice to parliament and a political stoush over High Court-ordered release into the community of asylum seekers, with the in the Resolve Political Monitor published at the start of December and people feeling the cost of living pinch.this week showed Labor had a 51-49 two-party-preferred lead over the coalition, three weeks after breaking a political promise and announcing a major re-design of the Morrison government’s stage 3 tax cuts which slashed the amount of money being returned to highly paid Australians and redistributed it to lower and middle-income earners.An early election in 2024 would potentially hold significant political risks for the Albanese government and could also clash with the Queensland state election in late October. Epstein, who was Kevin Rudd’s first chief of staff when Rudd was prime minister, served in the same role for Kim Beazley when he was opposition leader and worked for Hawke-Keating education minister John Dawkins. Gartrell said his appointment would bolster the ranks of “grey beards” in the prime minister’s office. Epstein’s exit from Rudd’s office in late 2008 was considered notable at the time because of the loss of experience in the prime minister’s office. The veteran political staffer also ran that government’s National Media Liaison Service – which was nicknamed the “aNiMaLS” – which managed whole of government media strategy and did opposition research. Since leaving the Rudd government he has worked for Qantas, BHP and Optus and been executive director of Labor think-tank the Chifley Research Centre. A senior Labor source, who asked not to be named so they could discuss the appointment, said that Epstein was “what the office has been lacking – as long as he is given the freedom to punch people in the nose”.The appointment is the latest in a series of changes in the prime minister’s office since his former media chief Liz Fitch left at the end of last year.political editor Katharine Murphy and Fiona Sugden, another veteran political staffer who had worked for Rudd when he was prime minister and for Albanese when he was opposition leader.
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