Anthony Albanese has shown he understands the Westminster system
This week the Coalition's weakness in Question Time reminded onlookers of Albanese's command of the Westminster system, while Labor insiders expressed their anxieties about One Nation's polling surge.
There's an internal view within Labor that the blowback on the budget is limited and will dissipate in time. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Parliamentary Question Time is at best an imperfect reflection of political reality.
A preening, frustrating dingleberry show oozing with hypocrisy and faux outrage. Talking point torture.
On a good day it's illuminating. There's humour. There's cut-through rhetoric.
Tony Burke seized on Angus Taylor prematurely returning to his seat. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
It has revealed an often hapless opposition struggling with basic parliamentary tactics, shut down by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke with ruthless efficiency.
Like an episode in the first week where Opposition Leader Angus Taylor tried to seize the means of persuasion by interrupting Question Time with a motion attacking the government's "toxic taxes".
The procedural stunt, which might have seeded TV bulletins and social media with a handy grab or two, deflated like a whoopee cushion when Taylor prematurely resumed his seat opposite the dispatch box.
Burke leapt to his feet, grabbing Taylor's unintentionally relinquished call. He ensured the opposition leader couldn't get another word out.
Looks on the faces of some of Taylor's front bench were portraits of dismay. Guppy fish gasping at the surface of an oxygen-deprived aquarium.
The bungled suspension motion is of little relevance beyond the parliamentary circle. But it's an indication of how underpowered the opposition remains.
Angus Taylor left his front bench dismayed during Question Time. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Anthony Albanese is on track to becoming one of the nation's longest serving prime ministers in no small part because he understands every nook and cranny of Australia's Westminster system.
To the extent that political power emanates from the institutions of parliament itself, which is to say a hell of a lot, Albanese has the whip hand over Taylor, the crossbench and caucus.
A few times this week, when the prime minister and frontbench were in full flight, cracking jokes, turning almost every issue into a scoring point against the opposition, this column's gaze drifted to some of the faces in the public galleries.
One couple in particular stood out. They may have been retirees, perhaps born in a southern European country.
Who knows what they were really thinking. They didn't hang around. But it feels like they knew they weren't in on the joke.
Trying to understand politics is a mix of intuition and science. Their icy demeanour sent a chill down the spine. An unmistakable sense of a sto
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