Albanese looks for reset on world stage as ‘spot fires burn’ domestically and likely interest rate hike looms
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As “summit season” begins, reaffirming ties with fellow leaders on the world stage could be a circuit breaker for Anthony Albanese amid domestic and economic woes, analysts have said.
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But a likely interest rate hike, triggered by higher-than-expected inflation, while the prime minister is overseas will make his job – and the treasurer’s – even harder.
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Albanese is attending the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Antigua and Barbuda from Saturday.
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He will hold talks with King Charles III and allies including the UK and Canadian prime ministers, Andy Burnham and Mark Carney, at the biennial meeting.
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The discussions will constitute a well-needed reset after controversies over grant funding and pressures on inflation, according to Dr Zareh Ghazarian, an associate professor of politics at Monash University.
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“It is a strategically important time for him,” Ghazarian said.
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“He’s got a lot of spot fires burning domestically but this is going to be an opportunity for him to present himself to be much more on the front foot.
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“There’s a lot of pressure, so this trip could just be a moment to reset the political debate for people … this is a critical moment to present himself as a world leader amongst other world leaders.” Albanese will be away when the Reserve Bank hands down its next interest rate decision on Tuesday, with markets tipping a rise to 4.85%.
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It would be the fifth interest rate hike in 2026 and a challenging situation for the government to navigate, amid continuing cost-of-living pressures.
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Albanese emphasised the value of attending Chogm before his departure on Saturday morning.
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In a crowded international calendar, the Commonwealth is occasionally dismissed as irrelevant, an anachronistic relic of a former imperial era. “The Commonwealth heads of government meeting is an important forum,” Albanese said.
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“[It provides] an opportunity to work with some of our closest partners on shared challenges, including climate change, the preservation of our oceans, trade and investment and the rise of AI.” The issue of historical slavery, and its ongoing legacy, is likely to be a key point of contention at Chogm.
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Burnham, writing in the Guardian, said having “difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth for the future” was the right thing to do.
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“Not just because it is in our interests, but because the Britain I believe in is confident, decent and brave.
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We led the world in abolishing slavery – and we can show leadership again today.” He called the transatlantic slave trade a “brutal and barbaric violation” of people “treated as property and worked to their deaths”.
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“I want to express my sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions of people, and to recognise the way it still shapes our world today,” he wrote. Caribbean nations have made renewed calls for Britain to apologise for its role in selling enslaved people for profit, and for reparations, as the King toured the Caribbean.
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Burnham said: “Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them.” But he said he did not believe reparations for slavery was the “right answer”.
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Australia would not be a bystander to any debate about slavery and the slave trade.
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Across the 19th and early 20th centuries, Australian agriculture relied heavily on “blackbirding”: the use of coercion, trickery, bribery and kidnapping to bring more than 60,000 Pacific Islanders to work as indentured labourers in Australia, primarily on Queensland’s sugar and cotton plantations.
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The Chogm meeting will kick off a busy end to the year overseas for Albanese, with international summits in Turkey, the Philippines, China and the US in coming weeks.
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The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, is currently in Atlanta, Georgia for the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting.
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The start of that conference has been overshadowed by the presence of Russia, with about one-third of the countries attending vowing to boycott the customary “family photo” if the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was involved.
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