ScoMo wins the battle of trust
LABOR was outcampaigned – that’s the big takeaway from this.
Scott Morrison took it upon himself and we did not see much from the Coalition frontbench.
He turned it from and LNP versus Labor campaign to a Scott Morrison versus Bill Shorten (pictured with wife Chloe) campaign. This worked because it was underpinned by the questions of who do you want to be prime minister and who do you trust?
Morrison was able to exploit Shorten’s unpopularity – an unpopular leader sell a potentially unpopular policy package.
This is a result which defied electorate gravity but it shows that kitchen table economics matter in regional Queensland.
You had one party which looked half-hearted about the extracton industry and issues like Adani.
We didn’t think voters would react so tersely to Labor’s program.
In places like Dawson in central-north Queensland the voters were very hostile to any hint of Shorten or the Greens convoy telling them how to run their lives.