Malcolm Turnbull’s return to the Liberal leadership means the next election will be more like other first-term polls, but Labor has been seduced by the possibility of victory

One of the predictable consequences of Malcolm Turnbull’s triumph over Tony Abbott has been a renewed focus on Labor leader Bill Shorten, with (equally predictably) some Labor partisans advocating his replacement by the man he beat in the party ballot, Anthony Albanese.

The new procedures for electing the Labor leader are in their early days, but one of their possibly unintended consequences is that the defeated candidate lingers on as a live alternative for those disenchanted with the initial decision. This is especially the case when the grassroots membership convincingly backs the defeated candidate, in this case Albanese, allowing him to retain his standing as some sort of “people’s choice.” Even though no MPs have indicated an interest in challenging Shorten, Albanese’s previous candidacy appears to bestow on him the status of a kind of leader in waiting…
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