Anthony Albanese\u2019s string of broken promises rolls on as the Prime Minister defends his decision not to attend the Garma Festival 12 months after saying he would go \u201cevery single year\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese promised in 2025 he would attend the Indigenous cultural gathering in Arnhem Land for every year that he was prime minister.<\/p>\n
But just 12 months on, Mr Albanese will not go to the 2026 iteration of the festival, saying \u201cI haven\u2019t had a day off all year\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven’t had a day off all year. All year. And this weekend, in a few days, I’ll be in another remote part of the Northern Territory,\u201d Mr Albanese said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be at another festival in the Northern Territory in the coming days, and I’ve been to Garma every year that it’s been held since I’ve been Labor leader in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments came after it was revealed Mr Albanese would not be going to the festival<\/a>, which serves as a forum for Indigenous issues on governance.<\/p>\n \u201cI commit here that every single year that I have the great honour to be Australia\u2019s prime minister, I will be here and engaged with you,\u201d Mr Albanese had said in 2025.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister’s decision not to attend Garma comes amid a broader political debate over his record on keeping commitments<\/a>, following multiple broken promises.<\/p>\n These include his promise to reduce energy bills by $250, reworking Stage 3 tax cuts, not to change superannuation, negative gearing or capital gains tax.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese told Sky News recently that it was \u201cnonsense\u201d to say he had not been upfront with voters as he refused to apologise for his string of broken promises.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I’m doing here, is what I was elected to do, which was to do the right thing for the nation,\u201d Mr Albanese said last month.<\/p>\n He rejected the suggestion that he owed voters an apology when asked, saying it was \u201cnonsense\u201d that he had not been clear with the public.<\/p>\n Rather than accepting the premise, he defended the government\u2019s decision to shift its position, arguing it was necessary in response to economic conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I’m doing here, is what I was elected to do, which was to do the right thing for the nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you can sit back and say, \u2018Well we acknowledge that there’s a problem with housing in this country\u2026 but we can’t do anything about it\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cOr you can say, \u2018I’m going to make a difficult decision for the right reasons to help the nation\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The Prime Minister continues to face voter dissatisfaction, despite Labor maintaining a comfortable lead on a two-party-preferred basis.<\/a><\/p>\n The latest Sky News Pulse \/ YouGov poll found Mr Albanese\u2019s net approval rating remained firmly negative at -18 per cent, despite lifting three points.<\/p>\n The poll showed a sharp gender divide, with Mr Albanese\u2019s net satisfaction among women falling from -16 per cent to -19 per cent.<\/p>\n The gender divide comes after Mr Albanese faced weeks of criticism over his Bush Deep podcast appearance, where he joined in a series of crude jokes and innuendo.<\/p>\n