Albo hasn’t had a good year – and now it can be revealed that he hasn’t even been able to visit his own electorate office, even if he wanted to.
Not only has the PM had to deal with losing the Voice referendum and the economic hits of rising interest rates and high inflation, but he has surrendered his office in Sydney‘s inner west to a pro-Palestinian protest camp.
Mr Albanese has been locked out of the Marrickville digs he’s had for years because of a handful of peaceful demonstrators. It has largely rendered the office serving his constituents inoperable.
Placards condemning the Labor government’s actions adorn the walls and protesters are sitting in on fold-out chairs, making it impossible for anyone to visit the office of their local MP.
How can this happen? Particularly for the country’s own leader.
There are ample laws designed and used frequently to disperse protesters.
However, for some reason, the PM doesn’t want to rock the boat and forcibly remove the pro-Palestine encampment. Perhaps he’s worried that the scenes will cause a backlash on Labor’s political left flank.
So instead, since January, the nation’s leader has allowed himself to be rendered powerless and unable to visit. Fencing has even been erected to protect parts of the office space.
Staff have been told the office can’t function as it should due to safety reasons – despite the wholly unthreatening nature of the demonstration.
Bemused constituents, used to being able to access the resources of their local MP, arrive only to find that they need to call a number to get any form of service they used to be able to walk into the office and receive.
The outside of the PM’s office in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner west, has been occupied by a pro-Palestine encampment – preventing constituents from accessing the office
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner west, has been surrendered to a pro-Palestinian activist camp
Pro-Palestine protesters have stopped Mr Albanese from using his own office – and his constituents from visiting and accessing its services. Authorities haven’t lifted a finger
Yet when Daily Mail Australia contacted the PM to try and understand how he could let this happen, the infringement on Australia’s democratic processes was justified with the line: ‘Citizens in a democracy have a right to peaceful protest.’
While that might be true, what about when those protests close down a taxpayer-funded office that has the sole purpose of serving the community the MP represents?
On that score, the government spokesperson had words but no examples or evidence of actions.
‘The Prime Minister has been clear that activity at electorate offices involving property damage and abuse of constituents, MPs and staff, is completely unacceptable,’ they said.
Daily Mail Australia visited the now borderline useless electorate office. The protesters have settled in for the long haul, placing signs on the property describing Albo as a ‘criminal hypocrite’ and accusing the PM of using taxpayers dollars ‘to fund a genocide’ by arming Israel.
One constituent says Albo is all talk and no action: ‘He might say abusing constituents is unacceptable, but he’s accepting the protestors denying access to an MPs office. How is that not abusing the right to protest on an issue?’
The PM’s spokeswoman even admitted in their statement that the protests blocking entry to Albo’s office ‘has caused disruption for vulnerable Australians seeking help’.
Yet she tried to justify that by noting that ‘electorate officers are continuing to assist the people of Grayndler’ – even though that assistance needs to be remote.
Mr Albanese’s office has been decorated with various signs calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East
Some of the signage out the front of the property
Local residents have been locked out
Albo is ‘choosing weakness’ in the hope that mainstream voters either don’t notice or don’t care about the fact that the government is letting this happen, writes political editor Peter Van Onselen
The Opposition suspects that the PM doesn’t want to cause a backlash amongst its supporters who support Palestine, potentially sending Labor votes the way of the Greens.
So Albo is ‘choosing weakness’ in the hope that mainstream voters either don’t notice or don’t care about the fact that the government is letting this happen.
One Labor MP who didn’t want to be named told Daily Mail Australia ‘it’s crazy we are letting this … happen.
‘This is nothing like (the Indigenous) tent city [out the front of old Parliament House]. They aren’t blocking access to the building and they aren’t on the property’.
Asked directly if – when defending protesters and their democratic right – the PM also defended their right to adorn his office with signs and placards, we didn’t get a response.
The PM’s spokeswoman also ignored a query about why laws to move protesters weren’t being used after so many months of disruption.