What’s the point of the Albanese Government? You might argue that at least it’s not a Morrison or Dutton Government but when it comes to achievements, crafting a cohesive narrative and acting on the many urgent national needs Australia faces there is not much evidence that it is capable of dealing with them and much evidence that it is timid and fatally risk adverse.

Indeed, it is arguably the most timid Labor Government in our history.

Its tactical nous is demonstrated when – faced with problems it announces a Cabinet reshuffle – a move that engages the shuffle winners and losers and the Canberra Press Gallery – but is irrelevant to voters.

It has commissioned lots of studies and reports but has then taken fright at their recommendations

For instance, Andrew Leigh and Treasurer Jim Chalmers asked the Productivity Commission to conduct a once-in-a-generation 15-month review of philanthropy. Responding to the report Leigh said he would consider all of the recommendations but one – that donations to private school building funds no longer be tax deductible.

To make sense of this it is worth considering the differences between the facilities of Australian private schools and government ones – as the author witnessed at first hand recently. Our granddaughter is in a juniors’ basketball team and travels around Melbourne to play against other girls. Recently we had to take her to a match at an eastern suburbs Catholic girls school. The walk into the complex passed a large swimming pool and big library before arriving at a very large indoor sporting complex.

Our granddaughter goes to an excellent inner urban public school, but the thousand odd pupils have limited playing areas and the school has been waiting for years for a much-promised multi-purpose hall. At the same time some classrooms are not for for purpose.

In contrast many Australian private schools have the funds to build Olympic-sized swimming pools as well as theatres and underground carparks while for many public schools the battle is to fix toilets or make crumbling properties safe.

The Disability Royal Commission handed in its final report 10 months ago. The federal government finally announced its initial response to the report ten months later. It responded to the report’s 172 recommendations by accepting in full 13, in principle 117 – ones where it has primary or shared responsibility.  for. Needless to say, the most contentious recommendations such as the phasing out special schools, group homes and segregated employment were ducked.

The latest Productivity Commission Closing the Gap report shows that the rate of suicide among Indigenous Australians is increasing, as is the rate of children in out-of-home care. It also shows that the number of First Nations peoples imprisoned, taking their own life and losing children to out-of-home care have all increased. According to the Productivity Commission’s Annual Data Compilation Report only five of 19 Closing the Gap targets are on track to be met.

With what is Australia’s most existential problem – climate change – the record is dismal. The world has just experienced the hottest two days in history while Australia rushes to approve more gas fields and shows no sign of moving from an economy heavily dependent on fossil fuel and mineral exports. We could be a renewable energy powerhouse – as abundantly described by Ross Garnaut – but instead lag behind countries with fewer natural advantages than ours.

Our roads are clogged with huge tractor like vehicles, but which are taxed like mini-Minors. A minor tweak to fuel pricing recognising the impact of these tractor-like vehicles is commonplace around the world but is too radical for the Albanese Government.

Transparency is not much better under the Albanese Government than it was under the massively secretive Morrison one. The six public servants responsible for one of the cruellest government programs – Robodebt – are still unnamed. Meanwhile whistleblower protection is derisory. David McBride, who leaked classified information to the ABC that revealed war crimes by special forces in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty because the appropriate law left him no other option. Yet, the information he disclosed was demonstrated to be true by the Brereton Inquiry, which found evidence of war crimes committed by Australian SAS personnel during their service.

Lobbying is still a revolving door of former MPs, Ministers and staffers who abuse Parliamentary passes to get access to Ministers, their staff and public servants which voters would find impossible to get. The lobbyist register is a joke.

At the same time political donations laws can be avoided by judicious strategies and parties obtain funding through Budget dinners and other fund-raising ploys. There is no real time donation reporting which many other countries require.

The long-awaited National Anti-Corruption Commission is a damp squib with a long waiting list of referrals and a reluctance to pursue obvious cases such as Robodebt.

Housing affordability continues to get worse as a timid Labor Party is unwilling to revisit policies such as negative gearing. Where are the well-thought out plans for infrastructure, transport and regional development? The Whitlam Government transformed Australia’s suburban areas and cities and dramatically improved the quality of life in the suburbs. The Albanese Government has no such transformational visions.

And where is the courage to dump the disastrous AUKUS submarine plan?

The problem with Labor is that the party room is full of people who, from a young age, worked through party ranks, factions and staff roles to get preselection. They are bland and conscious to avoid being colourful. The Caucus desperately needs talents like Barry Jones and Tom Uren to promote policy discussions and prosecute effective attacks on the Opposition. Instead, we get factional hacks.

Albanese really needs to start effectively promoting and implementing the many policies the country needs if it is to avoid the poor White trash of Asia which Lee Kwan Yew predicted for Australia.

Moreover, he has boasted he wants to fight Tories. Unless he gets going with that, as well as promoting and implementing policies which make a real difference to Australians and their future, he might go down in history as the only man who made Dutton look electable. Or more probably end up in minority government.