“The cost of living has turned up like an angry in-law and we have lost so much. The smart, smooth, strategic Labor of 2022 now looks like the snake oil salesperson of 1922.,” writes political columnist ANDREW HUGHES.

Since Anthony Albanese and Labor were elected in 2022 their broad strategy has been economic centrists but socially left. 

Labor strategists knew that ultimately the electorate places economic matters above social ones.

For many of us we vote governments out over economic failures, rarely social ones. That had to be reflected in the three ways most of us connect to politics at a tangible level in Australia. 

These are the Four Ps of Politics: party, person, policy and power. 

Labor of 2022 copied one of the most widely used strategies of the modern era: Blair’s New Labour rebrand of the 1990s. 

That demonstrated how a rebrand could reposition a Labour party as being perceived as being more centrist and more progressive by using those Four Ps. 

Kevin07 was a version of that. Gillard tried to follow, but her messaging was diluted by internal dramas becoming public ones. 

But Labor learnt over nine years how to do the Four Ps better. Key to the Labor v2022 repositioning working was the people who would implement the policy. 

The treasurer, from the southern parts of Brisbane, chosen partly to appeal to the middle-class, white-collar base in the middle suburban seats. Katy Gallagher as finance minister, the same reasons, and for gender, where the Coalition were badly lacking. 

Another aspect of this strategy was age as both are Gen X, who were in the ascendancy at the time, the power aspect. And having Katy as finance minister reflected that, in more than 65 per cent of dual-income households, women are the primary financial decision makers.

In fact, in that first term it seemed that Katy had reflected that latter aspect and the perception was she had assumed public control of the government’s finances. 

These decisions on who was to carry forward the messages about policies would also show Labor of the modern era as smart, strategic and smooth. More boxes ticked. More resonance built. More gaps between the offering of the Coalition and Labor. 

And for the first term, that worked a charm. Everything was going smoothly in the post-covid era of low unemployment, house prices growing and plenty basically everywhere.

The other aspect of power is that it is the perception of how much we have and for so many we felt powerful. Very first world. That was 2025. 

Now, our power is fading. The cost of living has turned up like an angry in-law and we have lost so much. The smart, smooth, strategic Labor of 2022 now looks like the snake oil salesperson of 1922. 

Their Gen X (b1965-1980) base, key to their win of 2022, is facing rising rates of unemployment, falling wealth through lower house prices, and for some, especially women, even homelessness post separation after paying ruthless lawyers the equivalent of a deposit for a Swiss chalet. 

According to the latest YouGov survey of Gen X, Labor now only has a 23 per cent primary in that cohort, with the Coalition on 30 per cent and One Nation 34 per cent.

Millenials/Gen Y (b1981-1996) its Labor 27 per cent, Coalition 20 per cent and One Nation 27 per cent.

Gen Z (b1996-2010) Labor is 26 per cent, Coalition 15 per cent, One Nation 14 per cent, Greens 34 per cent. 

The Four Ps are in need of a rebrand of their own. 

Right now, it is obvious what the hottest issue is for 65 per cent of us, which the Ipsos Issues Monitor backs up. Cost of living. 

Also in the top five are other issues that are connected to the economy: housing, immigration and the economy overall. The speed of changes to that list since 2025 is remarkable. 

Speed has been both friend and foe to Labor. As friend, it has enabled them to reach 94 seats in the lower House in one term. Extraordinary and validated their Four Ps economic strategy. 

As foe, it is eroding that advantage in one term. Using a strategy that eminent economist Chris Richardson recently outlined concisely in a LinkedIn post which noted how Labor, since 2022, have been noisily spruiking key savings measures such as CGT, but remaining quiet about massive overspends on other key programs that politically they can’t cut. 

And then add in five interest rate increases in one year, and time has also become a reminder that maybe yours could be up. 

The dual power team of Chalmers and Gallagher, once a potent Four Ps combination the Coalition struggled to combat, is perhaps getting close to its best-before date. 

While the prime minister believes that he has the right people in the right spots, facts remain. How can a Gen X politician earning close to $1k a day tell a Gen Z renter that they connect with their pain? 

Labor isn’t gone. Likely its current strategy is. But only time will tell if we see brand Labor v2027 or more of v2022.

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