The challenges chipping away at the PM’s power

The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s annual Power list plays on the whole question of the reality and illusion of power by incorporating the hot technology of artificial intelligence.

One unsettling implication of the AI-generated deep fake photos of this year’s Power listers – which include Hollywood actress Margot Robbie behind the prime minister’s Parliament House desk – raises the question of how real power is in a world in which reality can be digitally manipulated.

Not on any of the power lists is the outgoing Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, who dominated the 2021 list along with fellow state premiers Gladys Berejiklian, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark McGowan – two of whom have already left politics.

Collectively, the pandemic-empowered premiers narrowly knocked off the prime minister of the day, Scott Morrison, from No. 1 for the first time in two decades of the list. Also appearing on no list this year are the teal independents, who failed to win any balance of power at the 2022 election. That’s the hard political reality.

For the second year in a row, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tops the list as the nation’s most powerful person. Mr Albanese and his team had a strong first year in government, highlighted by Labor’s April byelection win in Aston, traditionally a safe Liberal seat.

By the time the power panel sat down in July, however, the cost-of-living squeeze, the slow pace of the clean energy transition and the likely defeat of next month’s Indigenous Voice referendum were starting to take their toll. These showed up in this week’s Financial Review/Freshwater poll.

If the Voice goes down on October 14, the prime minister will then have to turn his full attention to grappling with the inflation and cost of living challenge that voters have already started to mark down him and his team for not getting on top of. That’s the reality.