It dates back at least to the 1980s, during the Hawke era.

A Labor party that cast unemployed workers as “bludgers”. A Labor party that concocted a Neoliberal Accord with the ACTU to suppress the rights of workers, as a means to keep wages (and worker power to negotiate better conditions) down. A Labor party that devastated social support by making unemployment benefits far more difficult to obtain.

All this was an “unleashing” of the private sector the effects of which still rage around us today.

https://jacobin.com/2020/10/australia-labor-party-neoliberalism-accord

Keating.

The drift started post Whitlam but that movement is the result of voters. A more recent example, Labor lost to ScMo of all people, so they drifted further and we've ended up with yet another second rate Labor Government.

The only way to move Labour back is for voters to force the issue and Vote Green to shift the Overton Window, that seems very unlikely.

We really haven't changed much since Horne's iconic and ironic The Lucky Country,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country

You want Albanese to single-handedly abolish global capitalism, against the will of the Australian electorate? I think, as far as capitalism goes, small business is on the less unethical side.

Albanese is an adult, he needs to deliver the best outcomes he can from within the system we're given, not refuse to engage in the hopes that it would somehow fix things.

The government being the biggest job creator is not a good sign for the economy at large

Ai Group analysis of today's employment data shows that of the 484,000 new jobs created in 2024, only 99,000 were in the private market sector. 80% of job creation was in either the public sector or non-market sectors, both of which depend on government-funding for employment generation.

https://www.aigroup.com.au/news/media-centre/2025/government-funded-jobs-boom-conceals-weak-private-sector-labour-market/

In the '80s when Hawke bought neoliberalism to our shores.