Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

NSW Young Labor vice-president Lachlan Good on what Anthony Albanese must do to the government’s religious discrimination bill.

By the time the religious discrimination bill limped into 2022, the poor thing was as friendless as a Morrison at a press club.

Rushed through parliamentary committees over summer, the attempt to create federal protections for religious beliefs had been beset on all sides. Queer advocates, health and education workers, state governments — even the Christian right that initiated the bill noisily exposed the legislation as a political and legal minefield that would satisfy no one.

On its third revision after three years in the legislative trenches, the proposal seemed dead in the holy water.

Then the federal Labor caucus came to the rescue. Last week Anthony Albanese announced Labor’s support for the bill, with Labor committee members suggesting changes to some controversial sections. But caucus hasn’t yet threatened to vote it down if the changes aren’t made. The party has essentially asked nicely and crossed its fingers.

Embarrassing everyone was the Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who announced she would cross the floor to oppose the bill in its entirety, joining a number of government MPs who have publicly rejected key provisions.

If the bill is defeated, it will be because the government was outmanoeuvred by its sheer incompetence. Popular resentment and outrage at the bill’s cruelty is growing. But at this rate, Labor risks losing the credit to Liberal defectors rather than the work of a principled opposition.

Labor’s retreat isn’t just paranoid, pre-election jitters from an opposition haunted by the spectre of Bill “Radical” Shorten. Indeed, Labor staffers often pride themselves on their enjoinments of cautiousness (the idea of winning government without having to promise anything to anyone is every hack’s wet dream). After all, the government is doing just fine at advertising its own incompetence, so why risk the attention by taking a stand?

But the failure to take up big fights, particularly those that motivate Labor’s base, is a missed opportunity. In fact, Labor’s failure to cultivate political capital in opposition threatens to undermine any Albanese government’s capacity to deliver on the great challenges of our time.

On economics, the retreat from boldness has been stark. Albanese baffled the newly unemployed in 2020 when, after the union movement and common sense demanded the implementation of JobKeeper, he attempted to outflank the Liberals by complaining it was wasteful to pay some workers more than they had been earning before lockdown. The Labor leader agreed with his Treasury spokesman that incomes of $200,000 did not constitute the “top end of town”, and affirmed the importance of “aspiration” to Australian workers.

He committed to keeping the stage three tax cuts that would handsomely benefit the 3% of earners on that income. Perhaps the other 97% would have appreciated the public services Labor could have funded with that money. Instead we will have to settle for the sheer volume of glorious aspiration the cuts will furnish us with as inequality soars.

History is not kind to opposition leaders who play it safe. Kevin Rudd was careful to position himself as an avatar of riskless change, where even “the greatest moral challenge of our generation” was subordinate to his status as an “economic conservative”.

His strategy to implement the ETS was technocratically dependant on bipartisan support, which dissipated in the toxic fumes of Tony Abbott’s climate wars. Labor was left unprepared for a battleground in which we were overwhelmed by the raw power of fossil fuel capital, ushering in a decade of climate inaction.

A different future is possible, one in which Labor returns to its legacy of making change that lasts beyond the election cycle — which means more than just winning in 2022. Instead of relying on the vicissitudes of a hostile press, Labor needs to cultivate grassroots power and conscientious community support, based in clear commitments and values. In the absence of these forces, a leader and their agenda will be left disarmed when the knives come out.

At every juncture, Labor must ask what it is willing to trade for the prize of power. The answer — for queer kids, for teachers, and for the many who trust Albanese and Labor to stand up for them — is that this week, it might be them.

The politics of surrender are unedifying, and do not help build the trust required to wield the power of government effectively. Cynics in the party assert that the left never needs to be appeased, because it has no one else to support. But with every U-turn or capitulation, we risk eroding the soul of our party and the confidence of our base.

It is not enough to indulge passively the terms the Liberals set for our national conversation, which only dooms us to the tedium and inanity of the culture war.

When I listen to Keating defend the Mabo decision on talkback, I am reminded of what an empowered Labor government can achieve.

When I read about the union campaigns of 2007 against WorkChoices, I am inspired by the power of a Labor Party that channels the demands of working people into meaningful change.

A Labor victory in 2022 is essential for workers and the country, but we need to earn a mandate on our terms. Labor should reject the politics of surrender and embrace authenticity and courage. That starts with rejecting this bill.

Should Anthony Albanese show some spine and knock this bill back? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.