From Asia to Europe and now the Pacific, Australia’s 31st prime minister has been greeted with public displays of affection that his more charismatic Labor predecessors would have killed for. | OPINION by GMegalogenis
Anthony Albanese is the beneficiary of a unique diplomatic honeymoon that has the potential to place Australia on the shortlist of nations that are seen as moral middle powers.
These gestures are significant because no Australian prime minister before him has animated a cross-section of global opinion quite like Albanese. They matter because of what they say about Australia’s place in the world, and the opportunities – and risks – they provide the new Labor government.
“This for me is a sign of progress,” she said. “It’s a sign that there is recognition of the contribution that New Zealanders have long made to Australia – and now we need to continue that progress. It’s a sign, I hope, of the relationship experiencing reset that we had hoped for.” The bar of international expectation is set higher than Labor’s target for a 43 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Bainimarama, as chair of this week’s Pacific Island Forum, made this clear when he tweeted on Wednesday: “I have urged @AlboMP to go further.”Albanese would recall that Australia has been here before. Kevin Rudd received a standing ovation at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali in 2007, less than a fortnight after Labor swept to power.
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