KEEPING LID ON SCOMO’S EGO A WISE MOVE FOR COALITION

ASKED this week to name Scott Morrison’s greatest vulnerability, one of Labor’s most senior figures had no hesitation: his ego.

There’s no doubt the Prime Minister is looking increasingly, well, Prime Ministerial since the election.

He’s passing legislation, contributing only sparingly to the daily news cycle, calmly managing the odd backbench policy outbreak and making life hell for Labor with wedge after wedge designed to test “whose side” Anthony Albanese is on.

This is all incredibly frustrating for Labor, which is still coming to grips with its devastating defeat and trying to work out where it stands on all sorts of policies. It’s resorted to mostly nonpolicy attacks in Question Time about everything from Angus Taylor’s business interests to whether another whacky right-wing provocateur should be allowed into the country.

All very interesting, and tactically understandable, but none of it is gaining any lasting traction. And none of it tells us yet where Albanese intends to take a stand and fight.

So where is the Morrison vulnerability? Where is the weakness in this formidable Prime Ministerial armour that Labor hopes to one day penetrate?

Ego.

In fairness, ego is big part of the job description for being PM. Think Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull. Convincing a majority of Australians to vote for you as their leader requires no shortage of self belief.

Within Labor, however, there is a view that Scott Morrison’s ego is his greatest weakness.

When the Prime Minister rejected calls for an increase in the Newstart Allowance as “unfunded empathy”, his critics saw this as a callous mis-judgement and a sign Morrison isn’t listening to the people.

Morrison, by contrast, reckons he’s right in line with the sentiment of his “Quiet Australians” on this. He won’t budge on Newstart, at least not on the headline rate. In fact, he’s planning to get even tougher on welfare recipients, by reviving legislation for drug tests to ensure no one is spending their $40 a day on cocaine or ice.

Who’s really in line with community sentiment? Do voters want to get tougher on job seekers or give them a bit more help? Who knows? No one really trusts polls and focus group research right now. Not after what happened in May.

When the first postelection Newspoll finally dropped on Monday, it barely caused a ripple. The numbers were good for Morrison and not too bad for Albanese, all things considered, but no one really paid much attention.

Politics and policy decisions, for a while at least, will rely on gut instinct and listening to real people instead of polls. Who knows, this might just prove to be a better guide.

Behind the scenes, Scott Morrison isn’t exactly behaving like an ego-maniac. He’s busying himself with a number of policy “deep dives”, quietly bringing together small groups of Ministers and MPs (including first-termers) who have a particular policy passion to tackle a handful of problems from indigenous youth suicide, to veterans’ mental health and even the growing recycling crisis facing the states.

Right now his focus is fixing problems and delivering promises. Any big picture reforms won’t come until next year.

This is fine with the Coalition troops, who are still enjoying the surprise of being back in government with some clear air.

There was a moment of genuine laughter and camaraderie in Tuesday’s Coalition party room meeting, which one older hand said was the first time in about a decade the room had the feeling of a team rather than warring parties divided between the Abbott and Turnbull forces.

Of all people, it was Mitch Fifield who delivered the moment. Fifield helped remove Tony Abbott and then played a pivotal role in ending Malcolm Turnbull’s run. He stood ashen-faced alongside Mathias Cormann and Michaelia Cash to announce he was quitting the Turnbull Cabinet in support of Peter Dutton, only to change his mind the next day and throw his lot in with Scott Morrison, privately telling colleagues he had made a big mistake.

Fifield, who went very quiet in the months that followed, now leaves parliament to become Australia’s UN Ambassador, based in New York.

Fifield told a story at Tuesday’s meeting about his early determination to reduce the size of government. He argued internally against a new pork-barrelling grants program, only to be met by a wall of opposition from more populist members, who wanted the money to hold their seats. The ideology of a Senator was beaten by the pragmatism of marginal seat holders.

It wasn’t particularly funny, but in that room, at that time, it drew a hearty and united laugh.

Perhaps it was also an acknowledgement within the room that pragmatism is far more important than purity when it comes to political success and that egos should always be kept in check.

WITHIN LABOR, HOWEVER, THERE IS A VIEW THAT SCOTT MORRISON’S EGO IS HIS GREATEST WEAKNESS