Morrison’s promise to remove government from their lives has a seductive ring for those people,however in trying to appeal to such disparate groups,he risks pleasing neither left nor right and losing votes from the middle.
So far,Morrison has been able to talk his way out of most predicaments. But the tactic is starting to wear thin. He is starting to wear thin.
On so many issues he’s like the circus performer trying to ride two horses at the same time. After finally dismounting he insists it went without a hitch,despite videos showing he had fallen off repeatedly. No matter. In keeping with his ever more preposterous photo frenzies,he does a tap dance in a red sequinned top hat and changes the story.
After Emmanuel Macron accused him personally of lying,Morrison vowed he wouldn’t cop people sledging Australia. Asked again the other day about Macron’s charge,he responded by accusing the opposition leader of siding with China.
“I see Anthony Albanese backed in the Chinese government and a number of others in having a crack at me as well,” he said.
Uncertain how to respond to the blizzard of provocative,misleading statements,Albanese hopes the increasing brazenness will alienate sensible people in the middle.
Given voters think all politicians lie whenever their lips move,Albanese has to prove where or in what way Morrison’s perceived dishonesty or untrustworthiness makes him unreliable.
Like during the bushfires. Or vaccinations. Palmer’s advertising,coupled with threats by Hanson and a couple of his MPs to refuse to deal with legislation because of mandatory requirements by the states to get to the levels which Morrison so enthusiastically applaud,have prompted befuddled logic from the PM.
He claims credit for the high rates while absolving himself of responsibility for the measures which achieved it,including denying jobs or blocking access to venues for the unvaccinated. Every jurisdiction,almost every institution,except in the ACT where a compliant population is 100 per cent jabbed,has implemented some form of mandating to get rates high enough to end lockdowns,open borders and kick-start economies. It’s what governments are meant to do,not – as he says – not do.
Loading
“Well,again,again,I mean,we don’t have a mandatory vaccine policy as a federal government. That’s not something that we have done. We respect people’s choices,” Morrison told Seven’sSunrise last week.
It is bizarre for the Prime Minister to disagree with mandating vaccinations,then try to reap the reward from the benefits it brings,then have to insist those in his orbit,including journalists covering his events,must carry proof of vaccination to access venues with restrictions.
Morrison has been flailing,hoping Labor can revive him by offering up a policy ripe for scaremongering.
It will come with Albanese’s release of his climate change policy in early December. Labor’s targets will be more ambitious than the government’s,although not so high they can’t be sold or justified with assurances of more jobs and higher investment.
Albanese knows there will be a fight no matter what,and in some ways relishes it,judging that if Morrison goes in too hard,he will cast doubt on his own commitment to tackle the problem,alienate the centre – mainly the liberal progressives shifting to independents – and take his negatives even higher.
Loading
Morrison agrees he is the underdog,saying he has been there before,implying he can come back to win. It is possible. In 2019,with only a narrow policy agenda of his own,he ran a disciplined campaign,followed the script and destroyed Bill Shorten.
Soon after,he wrecked his leadership by disappearing during the bushfires. COVID-19 rescued it. Now,it is being wrecked again.
He looks more loaded dog than underdog,jaw gripped around a stick of dynamite desperate to drop it at Albanese’s feet.
He needs to calm down. The government hopes to narrow the gap with Labor to 52-48 by year’s end,deliver a responsible budget next March or April then call the election. At every opportunity between now and then,he needs,with Josh Frydenberg,to talk sensibly about the economy and frame Labor credibly.
Fascinating answers to perplexing questions delivered to your inbox every week.Sign up to get our new Explainer newsletter here.