Anthony Albanese sworn in as prime minister, and makes Quad timing a virtue

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will leave Australia for Tokyo this afternoon, accompanied by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US President Joe Biden — with whom Albanese has already spoken by phone — and Indian PM Narendra Modi in his first Quad meeting. Albanese was sworn in as prime minister this morning.

The timing of the Quad meeting hard on the heels of an election loomed as problematic in the event of a lack of a clear-cut victory. But Albanese has used the meeting to brush aside questions about waiting for a determination of his minority or majority status and seized the reins as quickly as possible, with an interim ministry sworn in of Wong, Richard Marles, Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher.

Labor remains on 72 seats but is ahead in Bennelong, Deakin, Lyons, Macnamara and Richmond. It is also still a chance in Brisbane if it can overtake the Greens on primaries, and Andrew Constance is not yet safe for the Liberals in Gilmore. There’s a feeling within Labor ranks that they’ll secure a majority, but not before the massive number of postal votes has been counted in the days to come.

Albanese has been publicly unfazed by the failure so far to secure 76 seats, declaring victory late on Saturday night with a strong speech outlining his goals on the Uluru Statement, climate action, a federal ICAC and gender equality, and taking a victory lap of his electorate yesterday before this morning’s swearing-in at Yarralumla.

The timing of the Quad meeting couldn’t, in fact, have been better for Albanese, giving him a reason to move quickly and a chance to engage with a key regional forum, as well as an ideologically sympathetic US president, while in Australia we’re still working out who will be in Parliament and who’ll miss out.

The swearing-in of Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher also provides an opportunity for Labor to start shaping its economic narrative. The new government faces serious fiscal and economic issues: a huge deficit and net debt, surging inflation, rising electricity prices and rising interest rates, along with intense pressure to rapidly demonstrate greater climate ambition.

Having campaigned hard on cost-of-living issues, Labor will find they’ll be quickly held to account for any perceived inaction.