Labor Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Cities and Tourism, Anthony Albanese, joined Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson for a fundraiser on Monday night at Club Maitland City, Rutherford.
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About 65 people attended to hear Ms Swanson, a former radio presented, interview Mr Albanese about his book "Albanese: Telling It Straight", his early life, politics, and the challenges ahead.
It was the first in a planned series of fundraisers called “In Conversation with Meryl”.
Ms Swanson said she had often heard “Albo”, as he is widely known, described as a warrior and a hard man, but she had found him generous, funny and a terrific story teller.
“Those who have known him far longer than I say he is principled, perceptive and patient,” Ms Swanson.
Mr Albanese said he was “working on being more patient”, but it was his goal to “learn something new every day, and get better as a person every day”.
Influenced greatly by the strength and generosity of his single parent mother and raised in public housing, Mr Albanese said his three life-shaping faiths were the Catholic Church, the Labor Party and the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
He spoke of the influence on his life of Labor greats, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Tom Uren, and the incredible story of meeting the father he thought was long dead.
Among the challenges for Labor ahead were to lift the primary vote and “continue to be brave”.
“Malcolm Turnbull is still the preferred Prime Minister, even though his government is bloody hopeless,” Mr Albanese said. “The challenge for us is to accept the rise of the minor parties, accept some of the responsibility and continue to communicate clear and consistent values.”
He praised Labor’s new MPs, including Ms Swanson for the life experience she brought to politics.
“The class of 2016 is amazing, and the number of outstanding women is incredible,” Mr Albanese said.
He took the opportunity to spruik his push for high speed rail between Melbourne and Brisbane saying: “It’s not just a “Utopia” episode; it does stack up, it is financial, and we should get on with it.”
