The 2022 federal election will be held on 21 May after Scott Morrison — the first Prime Minister since John Howard in 2007 to last a full term — this morning made the traditional trip to Yarralumla to ask the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament.
An election campaign that has been underway for months will now formally commence, with six weeks of electioneering ahead — a long campaign the Prime Minister hopes will wear down his opponent, Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
At a short press conference this morning, Morrison delivered a blunt message to voters: in an uncertain world, trust the devil you know.
“Above all, this election, as all elections are, this election is a choice. It’s a choice between a strong economy and a Labor opposition that would weaken it,” he said.
“It’s a choice between a strong and tested government team that has demonstrated our ability to make difficult and tough choices in tough times and a Labor opposition who has been so focused on politics over these past few years that they still can’t tell you what they do, who they are, or what they believe in.”
Morrison’s begins the campaign trailing Labor in the polls, in spite of Australia’s comparative global successes during the pandemic and strong economic position. Months of attacks on the prime minister’s character (mostly from his own side of politics), and perceptions that the government is incompetent during times of crisis, have eroded his personal standing among many voters.
Morrison conceded that his government was “not perfect,” but urged voters to overcome their dislike of him.
“This election — others will seek to make it about me — it’s about the people watching this right now. It’s about them.”
The prime minister spent just 11 minutes fielding questions during the opening press conference of the campaign, and gave away very little. He confirmed voters would know in the next week or so who would be replacing retiring Health Minister Greg Hunt if his government is returned. But he wouldn’t confirm if his front bench would remain the same. Asked if stood-down, scandal-plagued Education Minister Alan Tudge would return, the Prime Minister said he had never left.
“Alan Tudge is still in my cabinet.”
Now, despite admitting that people are “tired of politics,” Morrison has subjected the country to a protracted six week campaign, in order to try give himself time to run down Labor’s huge lead in the polls, hoping that a major mistake by Albanese, or a repeat of the prime minister’s strong campaigning performance in 2019, will get the Coalition back to level pegging.
Addressing reporters this afternoon with his own pre-election stump speech, Albanese tried to draw a distinction between a government lacking vision and a Labor opposition fresh with ideas to “build a better future”.
“This government doesn’t have an agenda for today, let alone a vision for tomorrow,” he said.
“They demonstrated that in their budget, which was nothing more than a ploy for an election campaign, with one-off payments to stop when the votes are counted.”
The opposition leader tried to draw a distinction between Morrison’s policy-lite pitch, promising stronger medicare, cheaper childcare, growing domestic manufacturing, a renewables sector delivering more jobs and lower-cost energy.
In a long, occasionally rambling press conference, Albanese also made a point of spending far more time with reporters, while also addressing fears his party’s small-target strategy has made him an obscure figure for some voters.
“I note that I’ve taken a lot more [questions] than my opponent did today,” he said.
Albanese cut a confident figure laying out his vision. And despite the ghosts of 2019 haunting Labor, he starts the campaign in a very strong position. According to polling expert William Bowe’s Pollbludger site, which aggregates all major polls, Labor currently holds an average two-party-prefered lead across polls of 55.3% to 44.7% over the Coalition, a national swing of 6.8%, with Labor’s primary vote on 39.5% and the Coalition on 34.4%, with the Greens on 9.6%. Labor has a 7.8 point 2PP lead in NSW, a 13-point lead in Victoria, a 0.8 point lead in Queensland, a 5.2% lead in WA and a 16.8 point lead in SA.
In each of those states, that represents a substantial — in some cases massive — swing to the opposition, but the polling gap will close dramatically between now and election day. There will also be considerable focus on seats such as Wentworth, North Sydney and Mackellar in Sydney, and an increasing number of regional seats as well, where Coalition members are under threat from independents.
Morrison will claim that he and his government saved 40,000 lives during the COVID19 crisis. Really??? Were did this mystical number come from? Some clever estimate from who knows where or perhaps Morrison simply picked a number out of the hat oh sorry in Morrison’s case that would be his baseball cap
.
With regard to COVID19 this is what we do know. After a dream run through COVID19 (thanks mainly to the various state governments who picked up Morrison’s slack) for the first year – apart from the disasters in aged care, Australia threw away its advantage. We went from the best in the world in terms of COVID cases and deaths to near the worst in the Western world. Largely due to the inept performance of Morrison in handling the vaccines Australia’s golden run came to a crashing end
.
However, Morrison’s incompetence reached new heights. In late 2021 Morrison’s calls for ‘freedom’ and the end of government interference in people’s lives in particular were driven by political opportunism. Morrison boasted of giving Australians the opportunity of a .normal Christmas family lunch together and the holidays of old. Undoubtedly, he expected their vote as a show of gratitude come the May election in return. ‘
Morrison used the slogan ‘personal responsibility’ as the way forward to living with COVID. Very clever this as if the whole thing back-fired Morrison could blame the common citizen for failing to act in a responsible way. This included getting vaccinated, and to drive this point home Morrison’s creative team made the outstandingly clever analogy of choosing not to use sun screen lotion when out in the sun. So if you get burnt than silly you are at fault.
By this stage Omicron had already appeared in Australia in late November 2021. By this stage the World Health Organization has listed Omicron as a variant of concern and said’ it could take several weeks to know if there were significant changes in transmissibility, severity or implications for COVID vaccines, tests and treatments’. Furthermore New South Wales was already in the wave of a severe Omicron outbreak. The resulting leap in cases and deaths from COVID since Morrison and his stooge the NSW premier decided to outshine each other in pushing the ‘must learn to live with COVID’ line was entirely foreseeable and preventable. As such both men are responsible for the spike in cases and deaths that have followed since last December.
Unlike Morrison’s mystical 40,000 these are the facts. Of Australia’s total COVIID cases of 4,912,723 to early April 2022, 4,700,070 have occurred since the 1st of December 2021. This means that over a recent seven day period Australia ranked in the top 10 countries of the world for the highest rate of new cases.. For COVID deaths of the total deaths of 6,495 4,464 have occurred since the 1st December placing Australia in the top 20 worst nations for COVID over a recent 7 day period.
But why would Morrison care the vast majority were the elderly, the sick and disabled and the poor all acceptable collateral damage in Morrison’s quest for power.
Morrison is culpable for these outbreaks as they was both entirely foreseeable and preventable but he was prepared to use the most vulnerable and their well being as a means to an end
One must remember that Morrison and his associates are the greatest thing sense sliced bread, they work on the F.I.G.J.A.M priceable and are not interested in any thing only in keeping power.
Scummo began using the figure “30,000” in the couple of weeks parliamentary sitting at the start of this year and was duly repeated by the usual suspects – Fraudie and the gHunt.
Over the following months it became 35,000 until 40,000 (do I hear 50,000?) suddenly sprang from his empty head, fully formed – like Athena from Zeus’ or Milton’s Sin from Satan’s.
Certainly not like Dionysus from Zeus’ thigh – too much of a wowser.
Just a very dishonest magic pudding wand-waving believer in fairy tails and divine guidance.
he does look like Lindsay’s drawing of the Magic Pudding – snarling & grumpy.
Was the subject of Lindsay’s drawing a lying religious fraud? Thou shalt not lie ring a bell?
Could he be the most dishonest PM in Australia’s history?
Our PM is responsible for nothing and his only win appears to be in the category of Teflon coated Gold Standard rorter in all matters involving integrity.
“but the polling gap will close dramatically between now and polling day”
how very presumptuous of you to assume that.
it is telling that this Govt has been campaigning non-stop – funded by tax-payers money – for the past 6-8 weeks, and hasn’t even made a dent!
some $60 million of taxpayers money and counting that this corrupt Govt basically steals from us (and that the Opposition don’t get
Send Rundle out on the campaign trail bus please
Lies, Damned Lies, and the worst of all Morrisons Promises. There is no place in the leadership of Australia for a compulsive and habitual liar. Our lying PM has failed to resolve within an acceptable time frame every issue he has faced in the last three years..
PMs score Card
Bush Fires.
He said he did not hold the hose so he went on holiday as Australia burned after he refused to discuss the probability of a disastrous fire season with the most qualified experts(remember post the last election he said he would burn for us)
Vaccines
Refused to discuss the ordering of the Phizer vaccine. because “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” and left us at the end of the queue
Floods
Held back aid until the media pressure forced him to .
Defense
Continued the Howard habit off announcing the purchase of billions of dollars worth of equipment that may be delivered in 20 years on the eve of the election. (Dud subs, Dud aircraft billions over cost)
Finance
Rorted the public purse on an industrial scale with “Mates ” amongst the major beneficiaries
Climate Change
The main game at this election should be Climate Change. Without addressing climate change all other matters are irrelevant. Again the PM has been dragged screaming to step up and show some commitment to a fact he denies .
Science
Ignored evidence that did not suit his hand-picked experts until fact overpowered his prejudices.
Sco Mo , No Show, To Slow How Low ,Must Go
SOrRY PM YOU ARE A FAILURE
As per usual, the PMs supporters are unable to comment on their reasons for downvoting .I guess that is why they support the PM who says “The election is not about me ” probably should have added “and my inability to tell the truth”
I find it more than curious that Labor do not engage in displaying Smoko’s numerous lies and address them head-on. He keeps sprouting about the LNP “economic management” when all of it is a dismal failure, embellished by blatant rorts, incompetence, and self interest…but he repeats the lies endlessly.. Come on Labour, he still has NO policies as such, and his lies need to be used against him and broadcast far and wide. If they are re-elected, our country, and likely the world, is finished in many more ways than one.
A very interesting discussion on the polling error prior to the last election on the radio this morning . Probably explains some of the reasons for the PMs’ last win .A group not included in the polling inputs was the under-educated who it appears voted for the Coalition . Probably supporters of the fat coalminer and the greedy grandmother Australia’s mega-rich natural resources exploiters.
“but the polling gap will close dramatically between now and election day”
Is there some evidence for that? Or is that a big assumption? Or wishful thinking?
The gap could well widen, or stay the same.
Having said that, there is only one poll that matters.