{"id":578210,"date":"2026-04-01T09:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/578210\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:11:09","slug":"australian-pms-have-addressed-the-nation-only-a-handful-of-times-anthony-albanese-joins-their-ranks-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/578210\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian PMs have addressed the nation only a handful of times. Anthony Albanese joins their ranks | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a rare move for an Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese<\/a> addressed the nation on Wednesday evening as the war in the Middle East, and its economic fallout, continues to grow.<\/p>\n

His speech from Canberra was broadcast across all TV and radio networks simultaneously, separate to the PM addressing the National Press Club on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Albanese outlined the government\u2019s response to the Middle East crisis and encourage Australians to play their part by saving fuel for areas and industries that need it most.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time PMs have stopped the nation to deliver an address like this.<\/p>\n

2020: Taking Covid \u2018very seriously\u2019<\/p>\n

The most recent address to the nation from a PM was six years ago, when Scott Morrison took to the airwaves near the beginning of the Covid pandemic, on 12 March 2020, to reassure Australians.<\/p>\n

At the time, 140 people in Australia had contracted the virus.<\/p>\n

He said the federal government had been \u201ctaking the coronavirus very seriously\u201d, and confirmed a $17.6bn package<\/a>, including cash handouts of $750 to 6.5 million people on low incomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to reassure your family tonight that while Australia is not immune to this virus, we are well prepared. And we are well equipped to deal with it,\u201d he said in the speech.<\/p>\n

Morrison later attracted much criticism for Australia\u2019s slow vaccine rollout, which the then PM had repeatedly described<\/a> as \u201cnot a race\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2008: The \u2018worst financial crisis in our lifetime\u2019<\/p>\n

The last global financial crisis prompted Kevin Rudd to deliver a financial address on 14 October 2008, announcing a $10.4bn economic stimulus package to alleviate pressure on Australians.<\/p>\n

At the time, he labelled it the \u201cworst financial crisis in our lifetime\u201d akin to a \u201cnational security crisis\u201d, and promised to use the federal government\u2019s surplus to support low-income earners and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Australians have become concerned, anxious and even fearful as to the future,\u201d he said during his address.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs prime minister, I was not prepared to stand idly by while people\u2019s fears here were being fed by the stream of bad economic news from abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia would emerge from the crisis relatively unscathed compared with other advanced economies, avoiding a recession thanks to fiscal measures.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2003: Iraq invasion \u2018in Australia\u2019s national interest\u2019<\/p>\n

On 20 March 2003, John Howard made an address<\/a> to the nation announcing Australian troops would be sent to Iraq.<\/p>\n

It was the second time he had made such an address, having announced a plan in response to the Wik high court decision<\/a> on the 30 November 1997.<\/p>\n

In his 2003 speech, Howard said the government had decided to commit Australian forces to Iraq \u201cbecause we believe it is right, it is lawful and it\u2019s in Australia\u2019s national interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to join other countries to deprive Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, its chemical and biological weapons, which even in minute quantities are capable of causing death and destruction on a mammoth scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

History would look back on the decision a little differently. Estimates on the death toll in the Iraq war range drastically from 150,000 to more than 1 million.<\/p>\n

1993: Mabo and righting a \u2018historic wrong\u2019<\/p>\n

On 15 November 1993, Paul Keating made a televised address<\/a> in response to the high court\u2019s historic Mabo decision, which overturned the doctrine of \u201cterra nullius\u201d (land belonging to no one) and paved the way for the Native Title Act and Indigenous land rights.<\/p>\n

It would be one of Keating\u2019s great legacies as a Labor leader.<\/p>\n

Keating told Australians the decision \u201crejected a lie and acknowledged a truth\u201d, allowing the nation to \u201cright an historic wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe it to Aboriginal Australians, to all Australians \u2013 indeed,\u00a0we owe it to our fair and democratic traditions and to\u00a0future generations \u2013\u00a0to\u00a0recognise\u00a0native title,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight,\u00a0we are within reach of an enlightened, practical\u00a0response to Mabo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be proposing\u00a0legislation to parliament\u00a0this week, which meets both the spirit of\u00a0the high court\u2019s decision and Australia\u2019s\u00a0responsibilities and needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

1941: \u2018We are at war with Japan\u2019<\/p>\n

The first national address in Australia\u2019s history is commonly attributed to prime minister John Curtin\u2019s momentous announcement<\/a> that Australia was at war with Japan.<\/p>\n

On 8 December 1941, the PM delivered a historic speech on radio<\/a> after the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMen and women of Australia, we are at war with Japan,\u201d Curtin declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not want war in the Pacific. The Australian government has repeatedly made it clear \u2013 as have the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands East Indies \u2013 that if war came to the Pacific it would be of Japan\u2019s making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtin finished with a flourish, quoting the English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne:<\/p>\n

\u201cCome forth, be born and live, Thou that has help to give, and light to make man\u2019s day of manhood fair, with flight outflying the sphered sun, hasten thine hour and halt not till thy work be done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a rare move for an Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese addressed the nation on Wednesday evening as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-578210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}