Albo’s Odyssey (and the politics of having your hands tied)

This month’s parliamentary sitting and its fallout prove Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a master of the politics of constraint, drawing on lessons that go back to Homer’s The Odyssey.  

According to the Ancient Greeks, sailors who hear the sirens’ song throw themselves overboard. When Odysseus sailed by a flock of sirens, he ordered his men to plug their ears with wax.  

Odysseus did not plug his ears, but had his men tie him to the ship’s mast. He heard the sirens’ song and lived. 

Odysseus took literally what contemporary politicians apply only metaphorically: to have your hands tied may be a source of strength.  

Consider how Albanese handled the politics of the last two months. The mass murder at Bondi led, understandably, to calls for decisive government action. Albanese was “forced” to recall Parliament. He was “forced” to put forward gun control and hate speech laws, and then he was “forced” to split gun control off and pass it with the Greens while he was “forced” to pass hate speech with the Liberals.  

The Liberal–National Coalition “forced” Albanese into a humiliating backdown.  

The consequences are that the Coalition is suspended; Liberal leader Sussan Ley may not last another month, and National leader David Littleproud is looking dicey too; One Nation is polling on par with Liberals and Nationals combined; and Labor’s two-party preferred polling is about where it was before.  

The blame for Labor’s flawed hate-speech legislation has fallen on the Liberals, leaving them floundering in dark waters. The Prime Minister has mostly escaped recriminations. Like Odysseus, Albanese was apparently lashed to the mast the whole time.  

The Coalition once understood this lesson. The Coalition Agreement is a fantastic constraint, because it gives politicians someone to blame without betraying party loyalty.  

Ask a Liberal why the party is doing so little on climate change – it’s those science-denying Nationals.  

Ask a National why Coalition governments cut services in the bush yet gave tax cuts to the rich – it’s those small-government fanatics in the Liberals.  

For a climate sceptic, small-government politician in either party, it’s awfully convenient. They get what they want without seeming to want it.  

The Howard Government made clever use of the independent kingmaker Brian Harradine as an excuse to limit women’s rights. Senator Harradine’s vote was given on condition that the Howard Government restrict foreign aid funding for safe abortion access and family planning. Those “guidelines” survived 13 years, five years after Senator Harradine left the Senate. The excuse remained long after the constraint was gone.   

Odysseus’ wife Penelope was another skilled politician. With her husband assumed dead, she was harassed by unwanted suitors. Penelope declared that she could not choose a new husband until she had finished her father-in-law’s burial shroud. By day she wove and by night she unravelled her weaving. She worked hard to limit her choices.  

The modern equivalent is for a politician to self-impose a constraint, and then act affronted that anyone would ask them to breach that arbitrary limit. How often has a politician called an inquiry, then urged patience while that same inquiry runs its course? 

In its first term, the Albanese Government’s preferred fake constraint was bipartisanship. Labor refused to act on promised truth in political advertising, fair Senate representation for the territories, and transparency in political donations reforms without Coalition support. Greens and independents were willing to negotiate to make Labor policy happen. Labor demurred, claiming “Westminster two-party democracy” requires bipartisanship between government and opposition.  

Labor greats never let the Liberal Party constrain them. Gough Whitlam went to a double dissolution to win Senate reform. Bob Hawke split the Nationals off from the Coalition to pass his reforms, including winning the last increase in the size of Parliament. Ben Chifley brought proportional representation to the Senate over the gnashing of Liberal teeth.  

Nor did the spirit of bipartisanship stop Albanese from strengthening labour rights with the Greens. Truth in politics laws are too pure to sully with Greens’ votes, but their votes are perfectly good when it comes to industrial relations reform.  

It took three years for Penelope to finish her weaving – a long time for the heroic Greeks, but a blink of an eye for an Australian politician. How many decades have Australians waited for climate action, for gas companies to pay a fair price for the resources they ship out of the country, for no child to live in poverty or to “Close the Gap” on Aboriginal health outcomes?  

I admire Odysseus and Penelope for constraining themselves – Odysseus to satisfy his curiosity and Penelope out of love and devotion. But when politicians claim to be constrained, it is too often an excuse to avoid making a hard call or to escape responsibility for an unconscionable decision.