Opinion: Has Labor lost its way since the 2025 election win?

Remember when a good government had lost its way? This was Julia Gillard's awkward explanation for her overnight substitution of Kevin Rudd.

Presumably declaring that the Rudd government was spotless, save for, well, Rudd, was considered too honest. Not to mention, absurd.

Fifteen years later, unity is again a problem for Labor, although now there is too much of it.

Professionalised to the point of pointlessness, the Labor Caucus has ceased to exist as the representative conscience of the party's rank-and-file membership.

Despite its thumping 94-seat return at this year's election, a good government may have lost its nerve. Or worse, its heart.

Anthony Albanese had been aghast at the reputational and interpersonal damage of Rudd's 2010 ouster. His protestations were ignored, but Alban