And it's something that we [the Australian Labor Party] have."But Mr Albanese insisted that their immigration policy is always "respectful"."Some of the positions are completely consistent, which is always to seek to bring people together," he said.In a wide-ranging and candid interview marking 30 years in federal politics, Mr Albanese nominated Mr Howard and Tim Fischer's defiance of their own constituencies to enact gun reform as an act of "courageous" leadership he had witnessed.Before entering parliament, Mr Albanese cut his teeth in politics while attending the University of Sydney Three election defeats followed, and he wouldn't sit on government benches until Kevin Rudd's landslide election win in 2007. But Mr Albanese thinks all that time in the political wilderness builds perspective.Asked to nominate the one day in politics he would least like to relive, Mr Albanese named the day of the 2010 Labor leadership challenge, in which prime minister Kevin Rudd was deposed by Julia Gillard."Many of the people who were behind the change of leader … were elected in 2007," he said."So, they didn't, in my view, value enough the difference of being in government and being in opposition. All up, Mr Albanese has spent 20 of his 30 years in parliament in opposition and is now Labor's longest-serving caucus member.He is only the second leader this century, behind Mr Howard, to serve a full term and be re-elected