Australia, explained.
Australia’s period of calm centrist governing has been accentuated by Anthony Albanese’s 2025 re-election (Hilary Wardhaugh/AFP via Getty Images)
The Albanese playbook on quiet engagement bolsters the country’s reputation for reliability. And that’s good for business.
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The shock of the normal: Australia’s progressive patriotismThe shock of the normal: Australia’s progressive patriotism
Australia’s own domestic politics, once a geopolitical punchline, is a growing soft power tool in its diplomatic kitbag and a complementary door opener for new relationships. Building off a series of successful leader-to-leader engagements, civil, political and business society should all be leveraging Australia’s moment of political exceptionalism.
In the years since 2010, Australia’s revolving door of prime ministers has been a point of international ridicule, especially when compared to the long periods of stability in Germany, France and pre-2016 United Kingdom and United States.
The emergence of Australia’s period of calm centrist governing, accentuated by Anthony Albanese’s 2025 re-election, has become an international outlier again. As incumbent governments were battered and swept away during 2024’s “year of democracy” and as the global right movement continued a long trend of reorganisation towards populism and nativism, Australia’s politics emerged as an island of stability.
That uniqueness is now a point of strength in bolstering its international partnerships and forging new ones.
It can be commonplace to see domestic politics stopping at the water’s edge of international engagement.
It can be commonplace to see domestic politics stopping at the water’s edge of international engagement. However, done right, political-to-political level dialogue can forge connections between leaders and countries. Commentators critiquing Albanese’s engagement at recent party political events in the United Kingdom missed the impact of that soft power deployment.
Having spent time engaging in dialogue with the McKell Institute in the United Kingdom in recent weeks, I have seen firsthand the palpable interest among our oldest allies in understanding the Australian political model. In using our politics as a tool of diplomacy, we can enhance those connections for the benefit of our national interest.
The political model established by Bob Hawke of neoliberalism paired with a social conscience was innovative for its time (USSC/Flickr)
In discussions among both UK and US-based think tanks, civil society leaders and government and political staff at Number 10, I noticed a hunger to understand our approach to politics and to governing. The ability of the Albanese government to chart a course of “progressive patriotism” through a time of global upheaval is catching the eye of centre and centre-left political parties and governments alike.
For the centre-left, it is an interest renewed. The political model established by Bob Hawke of neoliberalism paired with a social conscience was innovative for its time and once understood, was exported and turned into Bill Clinton’s “Third Way” politics and Tony Blair’s “New Labour” style of governing.
Albanese’s recent trip to the Global Progress Action Summit alongside Canada’s Mark Carney, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen and the UK’s Keir Starmer as well as his visit to the UK Labour conference was a demonstration of this new soft power tool.
Soft power, the ways in which two countries relate to each other and are influenced by each other, can be the sinews drawing closer a bilateral or multilateral relationship. Albanese has been right in choosing to use political engagement as a soft power tool in the current setting. A strong and positive soft power projection can make Australia’s relationships flourish.
It is the cultural, social and political “mood music” that can be the basis for country-to-country relationships. As someone who was responsible for Australia’s soft power projections through the New York consulate during the first Trump administration, I’ve seen the effectiveness of Australia’s soft power when deployed in support of our artists, cultural leaders and for business and trade relations.
There is wide interest in how Australia is weathering the big economic and social challenges of inflation, cost of living and populism.
Where leaders connect on a political level, the ripple effects of that connection can turbocharge all aspects of a bilateral engagement, including on trade and business. Where countries connect at a level deeper than purely a transactional basis, but instead meaningfully across all parts of a relationship, there is great benefit for Australia’s businesses.
What has been key in Albanese’s approach is the scale of the connections and the projection of Australia’s political engagement as a soft power tool. It differs, for example, from former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s style, where his appearance at a quasi-rally for Donald Trump in 2019 showcased his singular rather than layered approach to engagement.
There is wide interest in how Australia is weathering the big economic and social challenges of inflation, cost of living and populism. To take advantage of this position, Australia’s foreign policy would benefit from more social and political track II dialogues with partners in Europe and in Asia who are confronting the same challenges as our more established friends in the United Kingdom.
It is important to note that seeking relationships where there is interest or alignment of political models doesn’t come at the expense of Australia’s relationships with other countries or governments. Look no further than this week’s successful engagement at the White House. It should also not be discounted how influential the “winner’s circle” effect can be among nations with more populist and less democratically minded leaders.
As Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in New York this week, Australia is an “island of opportunity and resilience and reliability in a sea of global economic uncertainty and risk”. That reliability of Australia as an economic, trade, security and political partner can lead to better outcomes for its industries and its people.
About the author
Elliot Stein
Elliot Stein is Founder and Principal of McCauley Group.
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