The two leaders’ very different Sundays gave us a strong indication of what the campaign proper will look like next year. Morrison will again play to his marketing strengths,appealing to what he believes to be the cultural values of his “quiet Australians” with endless footage of him being one of the boys.
Unlike his first campaign as PM in 2019,Morrison is a well-known quantity across the country this time around. He likes to be seen as a laid-back,larrikin Aussie dad,who doesn’t take anything too seriously and just wants us all to have a bloody good time in the greatest country on earth.
Albanese,though,is yet to establish his identity in the minds of many Australians. Despite his quarter century in Parliament,he still has room to create his prime ministerial persona ahead of the election. His determination to keep his head down and focus on the government’s performance in the 30 months since he took the ALP leadership has dismayed many of Labor’s “true believers”,and outraged Greens supporters,who want the alternative PM to commit to a wide-ranging reform agenda in the style of Gough Whitlam,or even Bill Shorten in 2019.
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On Twitter,where you won’t find so many swinging voters,the cries for Albanese to “stand for something” have become desperate over recent months.
But Albanese hasn’t tried to campaign against Morrison on the national stage during the upheaval of the pandemic. Instead,he has maintained a laser-like focus on the seats Labor needs to win and the vision he wants to sell to undecided voters when they tune in to make a choice. He has always insisted that his Labor team would not try to set the policy agenda as it did under his predecessor,but that he would take time to listen to what Australians want and then “kick with the wind in the fourth quarter”.
There was a moment on Sunday,as Albanese took the stage at the Wests Ashfield Leagues Club,in which he looked to be readying for that fourth quarter. Having moved easily through the crowd,greeting local MPs and candidates and beaming at supporters,he paused a little longer than usual after the applause. He took a deep breath,almost a gulp;his eyes appeared to darken slightly and his smile dropped. He seemed,just for a second or two,to be steeling himself,like a player preparing to take the field in his first and only grand final.