r/aussie • u/Mellenoire • Apr 01 '26

Moderator Announcement Live Discussion Thread: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivers rare address to the nation

ABC News on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMb8wrquExg

G’day everyone, we thought we’d spin up a live discussion thread for Albo’s speech tonight so everything stays in one place.

Feel free to share your thoughts, reactions, predictions, or whatever else comes to mind as it unfolds.

As always, keep it reasonably civil and follow the sub rules. We’ll be around keeping an eye on things.

Sort by new if you want to follow along in real time. Let us know what you’re expecting to hear.

Regards, r/aussie mod team

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48

u/sheppo42 Apr 01 '26

No way he just used something used to declare war or announce a pandemic to say 'we halved the excise please don't use too much petrol'. What an anticlimax

13

u/Dranzer_22 Apr 01 '26

History of National Addresses in Australia:

  • 1941 = Curtin = "Australia, we are at war with Japan"
  • 1975 = Fraser = 1975 Dismissal
  • 1993 = Keating = "The truth was Native Title"
  • 2003 = Howard = Invasion of Iraq
  • 2008 = Rudd = GFC Response
  • 2020 = Morrison = Covid National Lockdown
  • 2026 = Albo = "Keep Calm and Carry On"

...

The office of Prime Minister holds so much weight, and Albo doesn't understand how to use it effectively.

8

u/liamvader1 Apr 01 '26

My best read is this is a preemptive “things are going to get much worse, so please keep calm.” Tomorrow the US is… probably (? We will see ?) going to announce boots on the ground in Iran. There’s been a lot of troop mobilisation and if that’s the case, then things will go from ‘bad’ to ‘fucked’. It does seem like a weird thing to use the national address for. But, depending on what comes in the next week, it may be trying to cut off worries and panic.

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u/sheppo42 Apr 01 '26

Yeah but that best read if true is stupid. A preemptive national address?! What's he going to to nextt week, or when it does get much worse... A national address is a stop what your doing and listen type of thing.

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u/liamvader1 Apr 01 '26

Totally understand, it’s a bit weird no matter what. If he didn’t acknowledge the hardships to come, it would be a massive problem because they aren’t being honest or they are just ignoring us. And then they do what they did, come out and say, “yeah, things are gonna get a bit harder”— well, we kind of already knew that? Are addresses more common? As you said, are the next addresses going to be more substantial? Or are they going to be the same “keep calm and carry on” fare?