After a brutal summer, the prime minister has emerged from the shock, hurt and anger in the community personally damaged but perversely well-placed to meet a national moment that demands nuance and empathy.

Having endured the jeers of some Jewish mourners at Bondi, Anthony Albanese has arrived at common purpose with rabbis in their call for mitzvah, which translates into something close to Albanese’s professed politics of kindness.

A construct of mutual care and respect provides solid ground for Albanese to rebuild social cohesion, in stark contrast to the performance politics of an opposition that has fomented outrage and channelled it into a circular firing squad.

The numbers in our first Guardian Essential Report of the year may not lie, but they certainly contradict. Albanese’s leadership has been marked down but it’s the former Coalition that has taken the broader political hit.

One Nation now has a legitimate claim as Australia’s second party, breaking 20% for the first time and creating real headaches for calculating a two-party preferred vote.

For Albanese, there is no sugar coating these numbers either; the Labor primary is down and his 53% disapproval (up eight points from December) is lower than after the 2023 voice referendum, the last time our nation’s capacity for empathy was put to the test.

That loss forced a recalibration in his leadership style, eschewing the big picture of national identity as an indulgence and deferring to a retail incrementalism that focused on the hip pocket. It was........

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