Pixies and Pogues Produce Pragmatic Politician
Paula Xiberras
I recently caught up for a chat with journalist Karen Middleton about her biography of Anthony Albanese.
Albanese, the economics graduate, music lover (including the Pixies and the Pogues) and former researcher to Tom Uren has always been one for taking up challenges, whether it be campaigning for marriage equality, giving voice to the concerns of the working classes and other social justice issues …
He was faced with his own very personal and perhaps greatest challenge, which Karen, a friend of Albo’s for many years, writes about in her book. Karen had long proposed a biography to Anthony which he for a long time declined. On more recent promptings Anthony agreed to the project.
Perhaps part of the reason for Anthony’s former reluctance was there was a missing piece of his story, which was to find the father he believed had passed away many years before. It had always been just Anthony and his beloved Mum Maryanne, until Maryanne told him of his dad, whom she had met on a cruise, who, with the end of the romance, had returned to Italy. After the loss of his mum, Anthony went on to meet and establish a relationship with his dad and Italian siblings.
Anthony ‘Albo’ Albanese was born into a staunch Labor family with his grandparents showing the way. He grew up with three strong faiths, that of ‘the Catholic church, the South Sydney football club and the Labor party’. Although the church faith has diminished somewhat over the years, he still is loyal to the South Sydney football club (and Hawthorn in the AFL) and his commitment to the Labor party and social justice is as strong as it ever was.
Perhaps some of that mysticism from the church remained with him in his faith in the sequence of events or coincidences that led to him finding his father.
An early example of Anthony’s social justice is witnessed all the way back to his school days when he believed a particular teacher wasn’t awarding him the results he deserved and just giving him a mandatory mark for his assignments. When he asked the teacher and was told that wasn’t so, he decided to put his beliefs to the test by including some gobbledygook in the next assignment and as predicted, even with its inclusion he received the same mark!
‘Albanese: Telling it Straight’ by Karen Middleton is out now published by Penguin Random House.
You can see Anthony Albanese in Conversation with Professor Richard Eccleston, November 2 at Fullers Bookshop. Bookings required: https://www.fullersbookshop.com.au/event/anthony-albanese-in-conversation/.