The Macquarie Dictionary definition nails it.
Hubris. “Overconfidence and complacency leading to an individual or organisational blindness to the need to adapt to changing circumstances”.
There could be few better ways to describe Anthony Albanese’s United States tour.
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Meanwhile millions of Australians are set to cough up extra on their home loans as soon as this month, with strong indications a further interest rate rise will then follow before Christmas as the Reserve Bank of Australia struggles to hit its target for inflation — and the Government’s ongoing tax and spend approach continues to help fuel the inflation fire.
Rate rise expectations are now weighing heavily on the housing market, along with Labor’s Budget tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
So those paying off their home loans will have to fork out more even as their house is becoming worth less.
And the bill when motorists fill up their vehicles’ fuel tanks is going from bad to worse.
Not that Mr Albanese would notice the bowser numbers as he swans about the US, where he began his tour in California, the home of Silicon Valley, as he visited Apple Headquarters and took the opportunity to grab a photo with Apple chief Tim Cook and talk about new child safety features.
Along the way he tried to invoke some ridiculous so-called rule in which he claimed he wouldn’t comment on domestic matters while overseas when he was questioned about Indigenous welfare — but in the same media appearance attacked the Opposition and One Nation for not supporting his planned crackdown on tech companies and immigration.
This is all happening against a background in which the nation’s productivity performance is dire, with tax, workplace relations and regulatory policies holding back businesses and stifling the economy.
It is little wonder then that the latest Newspoll confirmed that many voters were abandoning the Albanese Government and turning in frustration to One Nation.
The poll said Labor’s primary vote had plunged to 27 per cent, down from 37 per cent a year ago, before its slide began after its weak reaction to the Bondi massacre and its broken promises and never-endingly revamped Budget shambles.
The de facto opposition, One Nation, recorded a primary vote of 30 per cent.
On top of all this, the latest Intergenerational Report predicted a 40-year future of slow economic growth, and Budget deficits, even as it used a rosy forecast for productivity.
In New York, Mr Albanese is set to receive the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Award and has pitched Australia’s bid for a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council — and erased from his official transcript an embarrassing gaffe in which he wrongly called the crucial Strait of Hormuz the Gulf of Hormuz.
The UN Security Council bid is framed under the slogan “we listen, we partner, we protect”.
Most Australians won’t be following the bid to ingratiate the Government with other members of the New York follies.
The truth is there is way too much to worry about at home.
They won’t appreciate the Albanese hubris.
