First the good, and how wonderful that the country came together again last week. Business and unions, the great and the good, as much of the essence of Australia that could be distilled down to 150 people. Is it any surprise Peter Dutton wasn't there? Anthony Albanese has - even if only for a brief period of time - redefined the way politics is conducted in this country and this is worth celebrating.
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The Opposition Leader looked irrelevant as he stood apart, criticising from the sidelines. Increasingly, around the world, people are consigning the politics of the past to the bin. Scott Morrison began to shrink the moment he was removed from the trappings of power and the revelations about his bizarre multi-ministerial power-grab had diminished him as a person. What these couldn't do, however, is confer legitimacy on Labor's project. Last week's summit achieved this in spades for Albanese. It was a showcase for a new government, a new consultative way of acting, and a new direction for the country.
Sure, there was more than an element of performance art about the entire event - but that's exactly what politics is. Albanese has set the tone that will mark this decade. His enormous achievement has been to create a new mood of optimism that has established a new range of possibilities for the future. It's quite stunning how quickly and definitively Albanese has seized the capacity to set the agenda. The only problem remaining is how to deliver.
In this regard it's worth comparing this summit to others held by Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd just after they were elected. Rudd's 2008 talk-fest spread through Parliament as the flotsam of the chattering classes confronted the huge issues facing humanity. Nothing actionable ever emerged. In 1983 Hawke brought business leaders and union representatives together and hammered out a concrete accord that would deliver results. This is exactly what Albanese has done, but there's a deeper problem with the Hawke template: it's no longer fit for the job.
Even though Rudd proved incapable of resolving the issues the country faced back then (and is still facing today) he instinctively understood they will not be solved by accommodations like those reached last week. He knew we needed to peer into the future and attempt to discern new ways of tackling new challenges. By reaching back into the past for his playbook Albanese has deliberately limited both his view and his range of options.
This Prime Minister is choosing to see an economy that's going flat out as a problem. Instead of simply revelling in the fact that we're seeing record low unemployment and working out how we can maintain this in an economy that naturally slows as it grows, Albanese is busily stoking the fire even though the fuel to drive the engine faster is running out. He's ignoring a bitter reality that is increasingly becoming more and more apparent. The external conditions powering the economy last century - and not the ones driving it today - and the solutions of the past simply risk exacerbating the issues we're confronting today. Growth is a problem, not a solution.
Greater immigration might relieve labour shortages but it simply puts off the day of eventual reckoning. At some point we need to decide how many people this continent can carry. While this brings a welcome infusion of ideas, adding an exciting dynamism to our culture, it inevitably means a finite number of resources are being divided among an increasing number of people. The critical need is not simply to grow GDP, but to grow it per person. Albanese, however, has no time for equivocations such as these. His project won't allow doubt or prevarication. Just like all prime ministers before him, and all those who will follow, he claims he holds the light of understanding that will illuminate the path before him.
The summit displayed the extent of that beacon.
It's providing a terrific road map for the path ahead. What it doesn't show is the way the surrounding ground is changing under our feet.
Both the lower house independents and Senator David Pocock have been pointing out many of these complexities, which is a problem for the PM. The limited range of Albanese's vision for the future was on clear display at what should have been his moment of greatest triumph. He is solving last century's problems rather than dealing with the very different ones of today.
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The biggest task for any leader is to effectively shape the narrative. They alone have the ability to create a story about the way the world is shifting and the way we as individuals can flourish within it. Although a number of highly articulate advocates representative of broader society attended last week's meeting, as I looked around it was difficult not to suspect an element of tokenism. It was difficult to tell if they were there to contribute, or simply to add credibility to a process that had already been determined.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers admitted that some of the results of the summit were - as they say in the cooking shows - "ones we prepared earlier". There's nothing wrong with that. If it works on television the odds are it will work in real life as well but this, however, is the point. The solutions that have currently been proposed all seem so reasonable and appropriate today, but they risk banking up into new problems tomorrow. Although the government gives every appearance of being prepared to deal with issues it foresees in an un-ideological and pragmatic way, unfortunately this doesn't mean it has long-term solutions.
Reality has a way of uncomfortably injecting itself into even the best scripts.
Brewer Willie the Boatman crafted a beer called 'the Albo' and it carries a picture of the eponymous PM. It's labelled Pale Ale, but it's still got the taste of Morrison Light. This summit has finally given Albanese the chance to act on the concerns being raised by the independents. Let's hope he does.
- Nicholas Stuart is editor of ability.news and a regular columnist.
