Albanese's desk shows how he leads all other prime ministers in one way
When Anthony Albanese returns to parliament this week, commanding a historic 94-seat majority, he will sit in front of a shelf surrounded by more sports memorabilia than any prime minister in living memory.
The selection of adornments fulfils many of the stories Albanese has told about himself over the years and some of the things that the prime minister is less interested in displaying compared to his predecessors, chiefly books.
His reverence for his 'three faiths' – the Catholic Church, the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Australian Labor Party – manifests itself in an image of the Virgin Mary, a Rabbitohs ball and the man himself.
Loading
Where former prime ministers have opted for grand works from Parliament House's extensive art collection, Albanese hangs a drawing of beloved dog Toto sent to him by a fan. Beside it is a print from recently deceased Sydney Morning Herald cartoonist John Shakespeare imagining the PM proposing to fiancee Jodie Haydon.
Haydon, who Albanese is expected to wed during this term of parliament, features in at least three framed photographs, second only to his son. Nathan appears in images from across the years: as a laughing baby with his grandmother, Maryanne; a spectator at the MCG; and in a Sydney Swans jersey.
Then there's the sports paraphernalia, with at least six balls from major Australian sporting codes. A rugby league ball commemorating the prime minister's support for the code, a gift from the NRL, sits alongside a soccer ball from the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Rabbitohs ball, a cricket ball in a glass case, and a signed red Sherrin AFL ball.
Next to bound volumes of parliamentary acts sits a haphazard pile of books, including domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty's memoir Hope, Nelson Mandela's Conversations with Myself and rising star of the Labor caucus Andrew Charlton's Australia's Pivot to India.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
26 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Economic summit in danger of becoming a bureaucratic gabfest
The Albanese government's upcoming economic reform roundtable should seize the opportunity to reset Australia's future agenda. Instead, it looks in danger of turning into a bureaucrats' jamboree with the usual suspects pontificating on a system they are by and large responsible for creating. We know that tax will be the big ticket item at the August 19-21 summit and the heavily curated roundtable invitees certainly know their taxes, budgets and politics. And economic resilience, productivity and budgets are on the agenda. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's refusal to consider changing the GST is already tying one of the government's hands behind its back and the exclusion of those major players in taxation and deregulation, states and territories, is a further handicap. As the Herald 's senior economic correspondent Shane Wright has pointed out, it is not tax that will lift living standards and Australia's ability to pay for goods and services – it will be technology. The telephone, the internal combustion engine and the lightbulb were three of the most transformative pieces of technology. Now 150 or so years later AI is poised to change lives. Yet, there are no scientists or creative minds invited to the roundtable. Rather, Wright says participants are policy wonks reared in a culture that believes problems deserve a 'policy' solution when the real and most far-reaching solutions come from people who think differently. Adding some variety to the mix, the Productivity Commission is expected to release a series of reports on productivity that will provide data and ideas to the summit outside tax issues. And business has established an umbrella organisation to put forward recommendations, including on investment, innovation, reducing red tape, planning and approval processes, tax, education and employment. While incoming Coalition governments stay well clear of such talkfest, this is the fourth stab Labor has had at post election summits. The first, Bob Hawke's April 1983 economic summit, discussed economic strategy, the approach to unemployment and inflation, and a prices and incomes accord and was deemed an extraordinary success. Twenty-five years later, prime minister Kevin Rudd's talkfest, when 1000 of Australia's better thinkers gathered to ponder the future, is generally considered to have amounted to little and is mainly remembered for Rudd's awkward love-in with actors Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman. That said, good ideas came out of both the Hawke and Rudd summits, but more went missing in action at the hands of compliance. The challenge facing next month's roundtable is to ensure that the reforms are not lost in bureaucracy. After a tepid first term record on policy innovation, including a 2022 jobs and skills summit that stampeded business with its union-friendly re-regulation of the workplace system, we would have thought the Albanese government could afford to have been more adventurous with its roundtable summit. Labor is unlikely to enjoy such a massive mandate again. In such circumstances, timidity is not an option and the Albanese government cannot hide behind bureaucracy but should use the summit to promulgate wide-ranging and much needed reforms.
Sydney Morning Herald
26 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Segal's antisemitism plan takes us down a path we should fear to tread
This week, the federal government joined 27 other nations in condemning Israel's 'drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic need of water and food'. That same government's own antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, also published a report which proposed that universities, arts organisations and perhaps even public broadcasters should have funding stripped if they 'engage in or facilitate antisemitism'. This raises a question: if the words of the Australian government came instead from an academic, or artist at a festival, would it risk their public funding? The government is making grave allegations against Israel – ones that enrage its Israeli and American counterparts. It's possible some people could misuse those allegations to bolster their hatred of Jews, especially in the cesspit of social media. Could the government's words be taken to 'facilitate antisemitism' under their own envoy's plan? Personally, I think not. Trump and Netanyahu might disagree. And that's a worry. The definition of antisemitism Segal wants used to determine when institutions fall foul of it – drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – states 'criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic'. Accordingly, those suggesting the envoy's report condemns all criticism of Israel as antisemitism overstate the position. But the trouble is it's very difficult to know by how far. By what criteria, exactly, is someone to determine when anti-Israeli commentary becomes antisemitic? It's a crucial question when you're specifically proposing to make research grants terminable if the academic receiving those funds 'engages in antisemitic … speech or actions'. Or when you propose to strip charities of their tax deductibility if they 'promote speakers' who 'promote antisemitism'. Define this too broadly and you silence perfectly legitimate debate. Define it too narrowly, and these proposals have no purpose at all. Either way, it would need to be defined extremely clearly. The IHRA definition doesn't quite match this brief in two ways. Firstly, it is deliberately drafted vaguely because it describes itself merely as a working definition: guiding, illustrative and non-binding. Its drafters intended it more for the purposes of data collection than meting out punishment: a filter, not a sword. Loading Secondly, the illustrative examples attached to the definition, which outline the kinds of criticisms of Israel that would amount to antisemitism, were not unanimously adopted by those drafting it. One drafter, Antony Lerman, recalls there was so much disagreement about them that they were severed from the part of the definition to be formally adopted, to obtain a consensus. That's significant because it is in the examples that most of the controversy resides. It leaves a breach, now flooded by the most febrile cacophony, largely because this has become a contest to draw sharp lines to define something that simply cannot be defined that way. Take one common example, most recently reiterated by the chair of one of Australia's most influential Jewish advocacy organisations: that it is antisemitic, amounting to a 'blood libel', to accuse Israel of genocide. Fine, if the allegation rests on some trope that Jews by their nature delight in slaughtering children and are merely searching for an excuse to do so. Or if the accusation is so wildly fanciful that only the most prejudiced, conspiratorial mind could entertain it.
Sydney Morning Herald
26 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why exploring this Sydney home is like finding an unplayed Mozart
Turning 89 on Friday, the Pritzker Prize-winning Australian architect Glenn Murcutt is still surprising fans who thought they knew all or most of his work. Another home in Sydney's St Ives by one of the world's most internationally recognised and important architects, but the least 'starchitecty' in style, has come to light. Discovering an unseen Murcutt was like hearing an unplayed Mozart, said one Sydney devotee. Architect Nick Sissons said it was like finding an unknown Shakespearean sonnet. Once found, the family home seems to disappear back into the steep bush block. That was Murcutt's intention, he said, visiting the home he designed 30 years ago for Dr Judith Preston and her husband, Brian Preston, the chief judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court. 'It's always been my view that you design buildings that you go past, and every now and again, one might say, 'Oh, better go back and have another look at that'. And I like that idea that there's that privacy to the street, and then you bite the apple and you have all the fruit inside.' Sissons, who worked with Murcutt on a book about his Unbuilt Works, estimates the architect has designed about 400 projects across 55 years. Murcutt has won gold medals from Australia and the US, and the Alvar Aalto Medal. As well as the Pritzker, he was the first Australian named a Praemium Imperiale laureate of architecture by the Japan Art Association. No two Murcutt homes are the same; Sissons said the Preston home was 'wonderfully subtle'. 'It blends seamlessly into the bushland context, responding to the steep topography, sliding, bending and dropping through the gully.' He said the slender terracotta-coloured blade walls – requested by Brian Preston to match the pink angophora he loves – allowed glimpses into the surrounding bushland. Sissons said it felt as if the house had always been there. 'It isn't a spectacular architectural statement, rather it feels like a logical and inevitable response to its unique context.' To mark Murcutt's 90th year, the foundation set up in his honour will launch the Murcutt Symposium from September 11 to 13 at the State Library of NSW. It includes Murcutt in conversation with his friend Francis Kéré, another Pritzker winner, visiting Australia for the first time. It will include visits with Murcutt to homes he has designed, and a panel of top architects discussing ideas such as healthy buildings and designing for climate that drove Murcutt's practice. One speaker, Carol Marra, an architect and Churchill Fellow, said Kéré and Murcutt seemed very different – Kéré has a mid-size practice, where Murcutt works solo. Yet both took time to understand what's unique about a place, including its cultural and social history, the landscape and people. 'It is not trophy architecture but has a dignified presence of its own,' Marra said. She said it was difficult to date Murcutt's work. 'They could be 40 years old or could have been built yesterday. 'It's deeply human work, you can sense … a love of people, care for place and nature. It is incredibly hard to achieve this in our market-driven commercial world, but it is a reflection of who Glenn is, a beautiful human being, brilliant and humble in equal measure.' Compared with nearby McMansions, the Preston home is modest and was unusual for its time because it incorporated a range of salvaged wood. 'I like that idea that there's that privacy to the street, and then you bite the apple and you have all the fruits inside.' Glenn Murcutt on Preston House Preston, a devoted gardener who also received the TAFE State Medal for Urban horticulture (1999), said it was a very therapeutic place. 'You think about the Japanese concept of forest bathing. You have that in your own house. We get all the birds, and we open the windows.' Murcutt said it was important to have a client who understood beautiful landscaping. 'And [Preston] has made a paradise. It is just paradise.' Murcutt is not looking for new work but trying to complete projects. That includes working with architect Angelo Candalepas on the new beachfront headquarters for Royal Far West at Manly. Asked if he thought about his legacy, he said he left it to those managing the Murcutt Foundation. 'I am having a few difficulties, health-wise, falling over. It is knocking me about a bit. I say to myself if I get to 90 or 95 I will be very lucky,' Murcutt said. 'I am very philosophical. I would like to be active until I have finished, and I don't like the idea of slowing down, that's been the curse of my life. I'm pretending I'm still 40. 'I don't want clients to be waiting, and I die in the middle of it. So I've said basically no to every new project.'
