SCO-MO THANKS ‘QUIET AUSSIES’
SCOTT Morrison has pledged to support the aspirations of the “quiet Australians” who delivered him a historic win and end the class and ideological division he says Bill Shorten promoted for his own “political advantage.”
A day after his upset win shocked the political class, Mr Morrison accepted John Howard’s comparison to John Hewson’s loss in 1993 saying Mr Shorten had lost the “allegedly unlosable election.”
Hopeful of reaching a governing majority of 76 seats, but currently sitting on 74, Mr Morrison said the “quiet Australians”, whose vote his victory was based on, had been simply “looking for a voice.”
In an interview with News Corp, Mr Morrison declared he had a mandate to govern in his own way and said voters had resoundingly rejected Labor’s politics of envy and classwarfare agenda.
“It’s a mandate to govern in the way that I said I would, and that is to put Australians’ aspirations at the centre of the agenda,” he said. “It really was those Australians who haven’t got the time to go around and protest and get very involved in politics, they are too busy raising kids, caring for elderly parents, running small businesses, studying at night. These are people who want to realise their own ambitions, buy their own home, improve their income and they were looking for a voice and someone who understood that, rather than someone who was telling them I’ll solve all your problems if you’ll only give me all your money.”
Mr Morrison defied the polls, political pundits and the betting agencies to return the Coalition to victory.
His win repudiated Labor’s reforms on negative gearing, capital gains tax and imputation dividends, that hit retirees and hardworking Australians.
Pledging to govern from the centre, Mr Morrison said he would endeavour to unite Australians who Mr Shorten had sought to turn against each other for his own “political advantage”.
“This idea that we had from Labor of trying to set higher income earners against lower income earners, employers against employees, one part of the country versus another part of the country based on industries, that’s not the way you bring people together,” he said. “You’ve got to respect the diversity of opinion, you don’t try and set it against each other.
“What’s unhelpful is when that is played up against each other for some sort of, I can only assume, political advantage, that was rejected at the election.”
On election night, Mr Morrison shared an emotional embrace with his mentor, former Prime Minister John Howard, who has described the unexpected win of having a whiff of the 1993 loss by Liberal leader John Hewson.