Labor leadership appears settled but policy struggle just beginning
The Labor leadership contest appears over, but the policy struggle has only just begun.
Anthony Albanese is emerging as the consensus option to take the party to the next election, given his standing as a former deputy leader and the man who almost gained the leadership in 2013.
There are enormous policy challenges ahead of the party after the election result last Saturday, which puts the Coalition on 51.4 per cent of the national vote and Labor on 48.6 per cent in two-party terms in the latest count.
Labor is yet to decide how much of this defeat was due to poor tactics and how much the result of bad policy, but Albanese and others are putting everything up for review.
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On climate, the intervention of environment spokesman Tony Burke suggests the party could step back from advocating any form of market-based mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Recent political history suggests that voters like renewable energy but are easily startled by economy-wide schemes that put a price on carbon.
The Coalition attacked Labor on the cost of its climate policies, while Labor relied on the help of activist group GetUp and others to mobilise on the ground to win marginal seats.
The result shows the help was not enough to neutralise the attacks. A policy rethink is inevitable.
Albanese is cautious on this issue. In an interview, he did not prejudge the outcome and said Labor would act on the science. He was not prescriptive about the policy mechanism used to do this.
The need to keep the peace within the Labor caucus means the elevation of Albanese without a leadership ballot can help the party recover.
Even so, the decision not to hold a leadership contest three years ago may have been a mistake. Former opposition leader Bill Shorten lost the election against Malcolm Turnbull so narrowly that Labor ended up doing a "victory lap" and Albanese chose not to put his hand up.
Perhaps he should have. It is now clear that Labor needed a much bigger rethink of its policies and tactics after the 2016 election.
It may not have a leadership ballot this time, but will certainly need a long and thorough review of its policies and the way it conducted the campaign.