Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quotes Billy Bragg lyrics in first speech and wears old tie

Anthony Albanese is new to the office of prime minister but has shown a fondness for old things – including recycling 1983 pop lyrics and wearing 15-year-old ties. 

In his first speech to the ALP caucus since the election of the new government, Mr Albanese quoted lyrics from UK left-wing firebrand singer Billy Bragg: ‘Just because you’re going forwards, doesn’t mean I’m going backwards’.

Taken from the song To Have and To Have Not, the reference was welcomed by Bragg on Twitter who posted about ‘old mate Albo’. 

Bragg, 64, wrote that the defeat of the Morrison government had given an ‘uplift’ to many in Britain because it represented turning away from the ‘wedge’ politics of division used by conservative parties and a rejection of the ‘rising tide of populism’.

‘Obviously, for me, there’s the added joy of seeing my old mate Albo become prime minister of Australia,’ Bragg wrote.

Left-wing UK singer Billy Bragg, here seen performing at a 2021 concert in England, has welcomed new prime minister Anthony Albanese quoting his lyrics during a press conference

Bragg said he and Mr Albanese first met at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre in the late 1990s and ‘immediately bonded over a shared love of music and a commitment to the politics of compassion’. 

The prime minister and Bragg had caught up whenever the singer toured Australia and the pair last met on stage at the 2018 Fairgrounds Festival in NSW where they had an hour-long discussion about politics and pop.

Mr Albanese and Bragg first met in the 1990s and have caught up at irregular intervals since then when the UK singer has toured Australia, with their last encounter being in 2018

Bragg concluded his statement with a ringing endorsement.

‘I know Albo is the right person for the job. He has a socialism of the heart,’ he wrote. 

Mr Albanese, 59, quoted Bragg’s lyric when justifying promoting new MP Kristy McBain to the ministry over more experienced colleagues.

[There’s] a Billy Bragg song, ‘Just because you’re going forward doesn’t mean I’m going backwards’. It’s a good song. And that’s true because other people are going forward isn’t a reflection on the capacity of others,’ Mr Albanese said. 

Mr Albanese also quoted Bragg’s lyrics in 2019, shortly after becoming ALP leader.  

‘As Billy Bragg said, not everything that counts can be counted,’ Mr Albanese said referencing 2017 song The Bard of Barking. 

Mr Albanese, who quoted lyrics from Bragg’s 1982 song To Have and To Have Not during a press conference on Tuesday, has also shown his devotion to the singer’s literary efforts 

In 2020 Mr Albanese once more showed his enthusiasm for Bragg when he tweeted he was looking forward to reading his ‘Father’s Day book’, which was the singer’s history of Skiffle folk music, Roots, Radicals and Rockers.    

Mr Albanese remains as faithful in his music choices as he does his wardrobe after an eagle-eyed Twitter user spotted that he appeared to be wearing the same tie he sported 16 years ago.

In 2006 Mr Albanese was photographed wearing the tie but it later featured in an infamous Australian political moment. 

ABC journalist Tom Lowrey noticed this when he tweeted an image of a much younger Mr Albanese apparently wearing the same black-and-white patterned tie. 

The image comes from the infamous 2007 footage of Mr Albanese speaking in parliament while in the background future prime minister Kevin Rudd is seen picking out earwax and eating it. 

An eagle-eyed Twitter user spotted that the tie Mr Albanese wore on Tuesday is the same one he sported in 2007 when he unwittingly featured in an infamous clip of earwax eating

Those replying to Lowrey’s tweet focused on Mr Albanese’s frugality. 

‘Certainly can’t be accused of being profligate,’ one user wrote. 

‘Sustainability dressing,’ another commented approvingly.

Mr Albanese appears to be a man who makes life-long commitments, which was demonstrated when he was photographed shortly after being elected prime minister wearing a Newtown Jets top as he got the paper from his front yard.

Although he is an avowed fan of NRL team South Sydney, Mr Albanese says he still goes to see the Newtown Jets, a foundation club of Sydney’s foundation rugby league competition who were dropped from the top tier league competition in 1983.

They reformed a team at a level below NRL in 1991. 

‘Where I grew up people went to church on Sunday, they voted Labor every three years, and they went to the footy on Saturday – either Souths, Newtown or Balmain,’ he told Daily Mail Australia during the election campaign.

‘One of the things I still do is go to Henson Park to watch Newtown play and we sit on the hill – 8,972 of us – it’s a cracker.’