PM Anthony Albanese has hit the ground running in his first three weeks in office

Whatever political party you support, Anthony Albanese has had an immediate impact.

He set the tone for his hectic first three weeks by flying to Japan just hours after being sworn in to meet with leaders including Joe Biden.

Since then, his packed itinerary has included meetings with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and welcome Jacinda Ardern to Sydney, as well as dealing with a serious domestic calamity in the form of an energy crisis.

He also appointed the largest number women to an Australian cabinet in history.

Mr Albanese also conducted cabinet meetings in remote Queensland, indicating that he will concentrate on winning over the Sunshine State before the next election in 2025, after the Sunshine State strongly backed the Coalition on May 21.

With prices skyrocketing and a probable recession coming, the new Prime Minister has demonstrated excitement and commitment, two attributes he will need in spades as he faces major challenges ahead.

Mr Albanese’s first three weeks in power and the improvements he has made so far are examined by the Daily Mail Australia.

Foreign policy

Mr Albanese’s first assignment was to attend a meeting of the Quad Leaders in Tokyo with President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 79-year-old US President, who famously fell asleep during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, was impressed that Mr Albanese seemed so alert just after the election campaign, saying: ‘If you fall asleep while you’re here, it’s OK’.

During the trip Mr Albanese assured the leaders that Australia’s commitment to the Quad remained steadfast despite the change in government.

‘We have had a change of government in Australia, but Australia’s commitment to the Quad has not changed and will not change,’ he said.

He also clarified there was ‘no change’ on the position of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on whether western allies would defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion.

Last week the new Prime Minster made his first overseas bilateral visit: a trip to Indonesia to meet President Widodo.

The nation of 273million people is developing rapidly and Australia wants to improve market access for its exports as a way of diversifying from China.

Mr Albanese enjoyed a bike ride around President Widodo’s palace. Despite wobbling and later complaining the pace was too slow, he said he greatly appreciated the gesture and even took the bike back to Australia on the plane.

He then hosted New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern in Sydney where the two Labor leaders declared a ‘reset’ in relations.

Mr Albanese said he would consider her long-standing request to stop deporting Kiwi citizens who have committed crimes in Australia but have little or no ties to New Zealand other than their passports.

After two years in the wilderness, the Prime Minister has finally made touch with China.

He said he responded ‘appropriately’ to Premier Li Keqiang’s congratulations and then publicly urged China to lift its unofficial bans on Australian goods.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been traveling throughout the region, including stops in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga, where she promoted Australia’s climate change initiatives.

The Pacific nations say climate change is their greatest concern because rising sea levels could engulf their territories as polar ice caps melt due to global warming.

Senator Wong’s proactive approach contrasted sharply with former foreign minister Marise Payne, who was chastised for failing to visit the Solomon Islands when the country declared a security alliance with China.

Welcoming migrants

One of the new Albanese’s government’s first acts was to allow a Sri Lankan family who have been fighting deportation for years to return to the Queensland town of Biloela where they had settled.

Nadesalingam and Priya Murugappan fled Sri Lanka after the country’s civil war, arriving separately on people-smuggling vessels in 2012 and 2013.

The couple met in Australia, married in 2014 and were both granted temporary visas settling in Biloela, where they had two daughters, Kopika, six and Tharunicaa, four.

The Coalition government tried to deport them in 2019 but a judge prevented it and they were detained on Christmas Island while their legal battled continued.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, acting home affairs minister before Clare O’Neil was sworn in, made the decision to let them return to Biloela where they were welcomed by the local community this week.

Mr Albanese visited them on Wednesday and wrote on Facebook: ‘So lovely to meet with the Nadesalingam family today. They’re finally home, Tharnicaa and Kopika are going to school, and the Biloela community have welcomed back a much loved family.’

However, three illegal immigrant boats have already arrived in Australia since the election, sparking concerns that Labor’s softer stance is encouraging people to make the perilous journey.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews warned Labor against scrapping temporary protection visas, one of the three key components of Operation Sovereign Borders which was implemented under Tony Abbott to stop the boats in 2013.

Mr Albanese has vowed to continue boat turn-backs but, with Sri Lanka in economic crisis, the Government could find itself needing to conduct lots more of them in coming months.

Wage hikes

One of Mr Albanese’s core campaign promises was to boost pay growth after nine years of relatively low rises.

During the campaign, the prime minister stated that he would ‘certainly’ welcome a pay raise in line with the 5.1% inflation rate.

Soon after taking office, his administration made a report to the independent umpire who determines the minimum wage, requesting a raise of at least that amount.

Mr Albanese was able to take credit and remind voters that the Coalition had not supported such a significant rise when the Fair Work Commission announced a 5.2 percent increase in the minimum wage on Tuesday.

In a carefully planned stunt he held up a one dollar coin representing the $1.05 hourly increase to the minimum wage and said: ‘I absolutely welcome today’s decision’.

‘It makes a difference to people struggling with the cost of living and it justifies our position that we took in making a different decision to the Fair Work Commission that said we do not want people on the minimum wage to go backwards.’

In a statement, the PM said the new government is ‘determined to get wages moving again’ after almost a decade of low wage growth.

‘For the last nine years, low wages were a deliberate design feature of the Liberal National Government’s policies. They never once advocated for low-paid workers to get a pay rise,’ he said.

‘That era is now over.’

Mr Albanese thanked the ‘heroes of the pandemic’ and said they deserved the rise. It represented a major win for the new government.

However, the decision has left a bad taste in the mouths of business owners who are scrambling for extra cash as their supplier expenses climb.

Some have expressed concern that the wage increase may accelerate inflation, which is forecast to exceed 7% in the June quarter.

If inflation continues to rise at an alarming rate, the Reserve Bank will be compelled to hike interest rates even faster, putting creditors, such as mortgage holders, in jeopardy and potentially compromising the Albanese government’s political chances.

Mr Chalmers has already announced that cost-of-living adjustments will be included in his October Budget, and the government has not ruled out providing assistance with energy bills.

The fuel tax exemption, on the other hand, will almost certainly expire in September, boosting the price of gasoline by 22 cents per litre and causing even more hardship for motorists.

Climate change and energy crisis

Despite heated political debate on the issue since Julia Gillard instituted a carbon price in 2012, Mr Albanese has made climate change a prominent theme of his first three weeks in office, declaring that the “climate wars” have finished.

On Thursday, he wrote to the United Nations to advise the body of Australia’s increased emissions reduction goals.

Mr. Albanese pledged to reduce emissions by 43 percent by 2030 in comparison to 2005 levels, above the Coalition’s target of 26-28 percent.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and industry players such as business groups, trade unions, and energy advocates also signed the letter.

At the same time, his government was grappling with an energy crisis, which had resulted in skyrocketing electricity rates.

In a historic move, the national power market was shut down on Wednesday, with the regulator taking control to prevent blackouts.

It listed coal power plant disruptions, both planned and unscheduled, scheduled transmission outages, the early approach of winter, and periods of low wind and solar output.

Mr Bowen claims that the current issue is mostly caused by unplanned outages at coal-fired power plants, and that the solution is to invest urgently in renewables and battery storage.

However, in an indication that the climate battles are far from finished, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton warned that rushing into renewables could lead to future power shortages.

‘Labor is rushing toward a new system when it’s not at a sensible pace,’ he said.

The government wants cheaper renewable sources to supply 82 per cent of electricity by 2030, claiming this will save households $275 a year by 2025, and $378 by 2030.

But with prices shooting up, this pledge looks hard to achieve and the Coalition is ready to capitalise.

‘They went into the election promising electricity bills would be cheaper and that is not going to happen,’ Mr Dutton said.

Looking after the regions

Mr Albanese attended a regional cabinet meeting in Gladstone, a coal-mining town in central Queensland that had backed the Coalition, in only his third week on the job.

He announced that he wants to govern for all of Australia, including areas that did not support him, and promised to listen to local concerns outside of the main cities.

In a Facebook post after the trip north, he wrote: ‘We spoke with hundreds of locals about their concerns and hopes for the future. We will govern for the whole country.’