Election 2022 – it matters
WILL there be a repeat of the ‘miracle’ election result of 2019 for Scott Morrison and his party?
The polling indicates no, with Two Party Preferred polling at 54 per cent Labor and 44 per cent Liberal-national Parties (LNP). South Australian polling predicted a strong Labor victory and was vindicated in the recent state election.
Prime Minister Morrison currently has the highest disapproval rating of his term in the job, with 55 per cent compared with Anthony Albanese’s of only 34 per cent. Given his cowardice and the public backlash for refusing to meet the wider community during his visit to flood-devastated Lismore, this disapproval rating seems fair.
Will these numbers be running through Morrison’s head when he visits Government House this weekend to request the Governor General issue a writ for a May 14 or 21 election?
I doubt it. He will be too busy praying for miracles, his daily focus as he recently told 60 Minutes, so much so that he claims to have worn out the carpet on his side of the bed.
Perhaps there will be a tinge of regret for not calling the election last September when planned, and the polling was favourable.
What is certain is that the Coalition has a lot of work to do to win and will have much help to do so.
Morrison proved in the last election he is a very capable campaigner, when aided by the Murdoch and Nine Entertainment media empires. The Coalition revelled in reams of favourable coverage and concerted smear campaigns against Bill Shorten and Labor.
Having given up any pretext as balanced journalistic endeavours, these media outlets are already on the Coalition bandwagon. Morrison’s relationship with disgraced founder of the Hillsong Church, Brian Houston – whom Morrison claimed in his maiden speech to Parliament was a personal mentor – received no coverage. Bullying within the Coalition receives cursory coverage, while factional disputes in the Labor Party receive strident, repetitive examination.
The ABC is not exempt from devolving to Labor-bashing either, with their flagship current affairs programmes Q&A and Insiders being far from paragons of balanced programming.
And like the 2019 election, Clive Palmer will be throwing millions of dollars at keeping Labor from being elected. Palmer’s claim of fighting against both major parties is total nonsense, as the Coalition’s fossil fuel friendly policies assist Clive’s wealth.
Morrison will try to leverage this week’s Federal Budget into an election winning platform, as he claims to know the cost-of-living pressures affecting “working families”.
Temporary relief of fuel excise, taxation cuts and bonuses to pensioners are all election sweeteners and will be heavily promoted as the Coalition being on your side. “Trust the Coalition to manage the economy better than Labor” will be repeated by rote up to election day.
If we get around the witness protection program run by the media and examine the record of the Abbott experiment, the Turnbull disappointment, and the Morrison “miracle”, it is obvious the Coalition should not be rewarded with another term.
Far from being the better economic managers, the Coalition has presided over years of mismanagement and incompetence.
In 2013 the gross government debt was $257 billion. This was derided by the Coalition in Opposition as “out of control”. Prior to the COVID pandemic just six years later, the debt racked up by the Coalition Government was $541 billion and 41 per cent of GDP. Gross government debt is now sitting at $950 billion, and all boasts of future surplus budgets have been abandoned.
What did Australia receive for this budget blow out?
A fully functioning and equitable NBN? No.
Improved aged care, adequate supervising, and medical staffing? No.
Adoption of the Gonski model to ensure equitable funding of public schools? No.
Jobkeeper payments to non-eligible corporations? Yes.
Billions on military projects like non-functioning fighter jets and obsolete tanks and submarines? Yes.
Billions for consultancy company outsourcing to conduct the core functions of government? Yes.
The list could go on. Just as bad, this government has awarded government contracts to unqualified companies, prioritising community grants to Coalition-held and marginal seats, and paid hundreds of millions of dollars to for-profit companies to distribute COVID vaccines instead of the public pharmaceutical distribution system already paid for.
The reasons the Coalition resists a Federal Independent Commission against Corruption are obvious.
It is also obvious Morrison is not up to the task. He wants the job but not the work. The high-vis and hair washing photo ops show the depth of Morrison’s capacity. He wants for power in the real world and asks the divine to grant it for him.
The character of Morrison is best summed up by his teary performance last week when announcing funding for endometriosis research. The tears were bought on by reminiscences of his wife’s suffering. Fair enough. But the funding announcement was a repeat of a funding announcement in 2020 (which remains unspent), which was a repeat of the funding announced in 2019 (which was unspent). He is all show and using his wife as a political prop is a low act.
With the Morrison campaign bag of tricks being near empty this time, he is reduced to campaigning with national security warmongering and “trust” for the incumbent.
Along with criticising Anthony Albanese’s weight loss as inauthentic, and labelling independents evil, this negative campaign is all he has in the absence of any positive achievements, and smacks of desperation. They are not a reason to award him another term in government.