One in Five Trust the PM. The Cure? More Elections.

Only one in five voters trust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, according to a Resolve Political Monitor poll published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Just over 40 per cent of Australians blame Labor for rising living costs. Inflation hit 4.3 per cent in the 12 months to September, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, and last week interest rates went up again.

The press handled it like a horse race. The AFR declared "Blow for PM as Coalition closes in on Labor." Crikey wrote of "more bad polls for Albo." Nobody at the top seems to have asked the obvious question: what happens to the people paying more for everything while the two big parties trade poll numbers?

Who Has the Power

Asked about the numbers on Monday, Albanese pointed at the other side. The opposition made over 2,000 commitments at the election, he said. "One of the things that happens in elections is that people put commitments in order to advance their position. That has happened in every election that I've been involved," he said. It's a remarkable thing to say out loud. The man in charge describes the promise-making machine as routine, a known feature of the game.

The ABC reported that the PM held an honorary membership for a golf club in his electorate that received a $6 million grant. The story sits in the same news cycle as a government trying to claw back $3 billion by winding back the over-65s private health insurance rebate.

Who Gets Crushed

Communications Minister Anika Wells conceded the squeeze. "People are under a lot of pressure and these are difficult and tricky times, and Australians want their lawmakers, their governments to know that that's understandable and that's their right and we hear that feedback," she told Channel Nine. Feedback received. Rent and groceries still cost what they cost.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek defended the rebate cut on Channel Seven: "This is about people on the same income getting the same rebate, not based on age." Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson called the measure an "assault on pensioners." The Coalition and Greens oppose it, and Labor doesn't have a majority in the Senate, so the savings measures sit stuck while parliament does what parliament does.

Albanese urged the opposition and Greens to back the measures. He described his own side as "a united government with a sense of purpose governing in what are difficult global times," and the alternative as "a rabble, essentially, of dysfunction of One Nation, the Liberals, the Nationals and others on the right and the Greens being a protest party on the left." Everyone's a rabble except the person speaking.

What They're Calling the Alternative

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor's answer is a Coalition "razor gang" led by Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume, aiming to cut red tape by 25 per cent. Taylor said the Coalition's tax cut plans are worth $220 billion over eight years, with $31 billion in spending cuts outlined over four years. Asked about a Financial Review poll showing a significant recovery in the Coalition primary vote, Taylor said: "You always welcome a good poll."

There it is. The government that has run the country into its fifth year in government and the party angling to replace it are arguing over who cuts what, who gets the rebate and whose polling is better. Both sell the same product: a promise, an election away.

Albanese said he'll engage with Trump "respectfully and diplomatically" on the war in the Middle East at the ASEAN conference in Manila, where the Quad meets, and aims to push him to end the war in Iran and drop tariffs on Australia. "I'll engage constructively as I've developed a constructive relationship with President Trump," he said.

The poll says one in five trust him. The ballot box says wait for the next round. Meanwhile the bills arrive on schedule.