Life on the West Island - Then and Now

In West Island governance, it is often said that a week is a long time in politics. Given recent events, perhaps we could now say that three months is an eternity!

To explore this, let’s look at the fortunes of our federal leaders in early March and then in late May.

Early March

Anthony Albanese

In March, the consensus of the public opinion pollsters and commentators was that “Albo” was behind in the race and had led a timid government, especially after the loss of the Voice referendum. Labor only had a slim three seat majority in the House of Representatives and after the election could at best hope to cobble together a minority government with a combination of teals and independents. Albo was a nice enough bloke but lacked charisma and had failed to string together a compelling narrative in his struggles to confront perceived crises in cost of living, housing and energy. Despite this, he claimed to be aiming at achieving majority government and was campaigning on a hopeful slogan of Building Australia’s future.

Peter Dutton

Three months ago, Liberal leader Peter Dutton was eyeing a “miracle” election win, campaigning enthusiastically in outer suburban areas in an attempt to win the 22 seats his party needed to win to form government. While most pundits thought this was a difficult task, he was in front in the polls, and was given a better than even chance of winning more seats than Labor and possibly forming a minority government. Dutton claimed to have reunited the Coalition after its shattering loss in 2022 and said that it was united and moving ahead positively. He was portraying himself as a strong and decisive leader and constantly referred to Albo as weak and as having created all of the West Island’s woes. By comparison, Dutton was strong on rhetoric (although lacking many detailed policies) and promised to get the nation Back on track.

David Littleproud

The low-profile leader of the National Party was looking to win at least three regional seats from Labor and to be part of a new Coalition government. Most voters in the cities had never heard of him, but were aware that the Nationals were sceptical of the existence of climate change and promising to build seven nuclear power plants at some hazy future time, claiming they would solve the nation’s energy crisis and even bring down household power bills, despite the eye-watering cost of actually constructing them.

Adam Bandt

While the Greens leader was widely portrayed as combative and radical, he confidently expected his party to hold all its seats, win a couple more and hold the balance of power in the new parliament with a minority government. The Greens fought a low-impact campaign with themes of addressing climate change, solving the housing crisis, saving the environment, adding dental services to Medicare, taxing rich companies and individuals, all intended to provide the nation with world-class public health, education, and affordable housing.

Sussan Ley: Who?

Larissa Waters: Who?

On May 3, the election was held, and Labor achieved a record-breaking majority of 50 seats more than the Coalition.

Late May

Anthony Albanese

Albo always said he wanted a majority government, but few of us listened. Now he has an enormous caucus and one of his problems might be to keep them all busy. But he has thrashed the Coalition, achieving a record number of Labor MPs in the House. And Labor has improved dramatically in the Senate to the point that it will probably not need to bargain with the independents to get its legislation through. Albo aside, it would be difficult to find a pundit, or even a Labor backbencher, who saw this coming. As late as the day before the election Malcolm Mackerras and News Limited still forecast a hung parliament. But will the huge majority make Albo more ambitious on knotty issues like tax reform, genuine tackling of the housing crisis, calling out Israel’s blatant genocide or taking real action on climate change? Only time will tell, but so far Albo is remaining cautious – or some would say, timid.

Peter Dutton: Who?

David Littleproud: Suddenly the name Littleproud is on everyone’s lips – but not always in good ways. His hasty and intemperate attempt to blow up the Coalition has instead blown up in his own face, making him look amateurish and placing his leadership of the Nationals in mortal danger. While he has now backed down, he is still insisting that the Liberals must maintain some of the policies which resulted in a crushing election loss, such as the ill-fated nuclear strategy, which failed the pub test on cost, hugely long timelines and no plan to deal with 50,000 years of toxic waste. One columnist claimed that Littleproud himself had gone nuclear, and his future looks grim.

Adam Bandt: Who?

Sussan Ley: The newly-anointed leader of the rump of the Liberals has had a very chequered past, including being sacked from Cabinet for misusing government funds and some rash television pronouncements. Who can forget her pledge to repeal Labor’s Stage 3 tax cuts, which benefitted almost every taxpayer? She is trying to paper over her party’s abysmal performance in getting women into its ranks, and even demoted three of the few there in her recently-announced shadow ministry. Rather than revamping the Coalition’s threadbare policy offering, she seems intent on fixing the problem by “communicating better” with women and young people. Good luck with that strategy.

Larissa Waters: So, you hadn’t heard of the Greens senator from Queensland? Neither had many of us, but she is now parliamentary leader of the Greens, who in the 2025 election lost three quarters of their lower house seats but did quite well in the Senate. She is the leading figure in a group of three Green women senators, agreed upon by consensus, not the tawdry voting of the ailing old parties. It seems that the Greens might be less confrontational this time around and might return to their roots to focus heavily on climate change and environmental protection.

So, in our “then and now” consideration of the last three months of West Island politics, winners can be grinners and losers (including two sitting leaders who lost their seats) can please themselves!