Yawn.
After the Sunday night street brawl, yesterday’s final leaders debate on Seven at the adult-friendly time of 9.10pm was an altogether more placid, tired affair.
This is no shade to Mark Riley, who did an impeccable job as moderator, managing to keep things civil and audible while giving Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese enough leeway to get in a few blows.
Rather, it seemed a resigned reflection of where we are in the campaign. Nine days out from polling day, Morrison’s attacks aren’t landing, the polls aren’t narrowing, and the vibe shift towards Labor is getting harder for the government to stop. A recent YouGov poll has Labor on track to win 80 seats in the lower house. The government’s hold is slipping and everyone knows it.
Viewed purely in a vacuum, last night was another dead heat, with neither leader able to land a killer blow (if such a thing even exists). That didn’t stop the undecided voters gathered by Seven overwhelmingly calling it for Albanese, with 50% giving him the win, compared with 34% for Morrison and 16% undecided.
Albanese won the room in each of the marginal electorates where voters were polled, except for Hasluck in Western Australia where it was a tie.
That’s worrying for the prime minister because he didn’t really put a foot out of line last night. In typical Morrison fashion, he stared down the barrel of the camera, delivered his lines with blustery aplomb, huffed and puffed about boats, and maintained that highly focus-grouped facial expression of “statesmanlike smug” throughout.
The Labor leader was called a “loose unit” on the economy for daring to push for workers to get a wage rise — a clear sign Morrison is indifferent to young voters, for whom this term is actually one of endearment.
On border protection, Morrison continued to claim that Labor (who supports the government’s regime) would kickstart the people-smuggling trade because of things that happened a decade ago.
“I know how to keep [asylum seeker boats] stopped because I stopped them,” he thundered.
He was even able to turn a series of pointed questions from Riley about the future of backbench minister Alan Tudge into an attack on Albanese over his handling of bullying allegations against the late senator Kimberley Kitching.
But none of it really worked, because at this point, the only way Morrison could definitively “win” was a total evisceration of his opponent, and an Albanese gaffe shocking enough to reverberate through the news cycle all the way until polling day.
Across three debates that hasn’t happened. That early gaffe distracted us from the fact that Albanese is pretty good at this stuff. He’s been an MP for 26 years, was leader of the house for six, and is a renowned question time brawler. He was never going to implode on the debate stage.
Albanese might be a little less polished and camera-obsessed as his opponent. But what increasingly came out last night was his own flavour of prime ministerial-ness. On crunch issues of wages and cost of living, his messaging seemed more personal and empathetic, soaked in his lived experience.
Framing a modest wage increase as just “two cups of coffee a day” was an effective response to shrill claims from a government saying it would ruin the economy. On cheaper childcare, there seemed some vision to counter the government’s whole “stick with the devil you know” schtick.
If you’re looking for more reasons why Morrison still trails, one of the final questions was revealing. When asked to name an admirable quality about the other leader and something that worries them, Morrison recounted Albanese’s log-cabin origin story in misty-eyed detail, before a “Katter-esque” pivot to criticising him for not having the chops to be prime minister.
Albanese managed to say something nice (about Morrison’s funding for mental health) with no sting.
Something about Morrison’s backhanded compliment just seemed … unpleasant. “Unpleasant” seems to also be the pervasive character assessment offered about the PM from so many, even on his side of politics. Nobody’s queuing up to call him a “top bloke” either.
The Coalition knows people don’t really like Morrison. That’s why it’s comparing him with a dentist (don’t have to like him as long as he fills your cavities).
Unpleasantness also pervades the government’s reelection pitch. Any traces of the early campaign optimism about Australia’s comparatively strong economy have dwindled after the inflation and interest rate rises, replaced with fear and bluster.
It might be enough to claw back the undecideds. But last night was one of Morrison’s last chances to turn things around. He didn’t.
The media (including Crikey) searching for Morrison’s worth is getting more and more absurd. He has not good points. By his own admission he is transactional and policy-free. He runs a campaign based on keeping the incompetence and corruption you know. The sooner this buffoon and his alleged government are consigned to history the better.
But assuming Labor are elected to a majority in the Reps, I really hope Labor can start the campaign for the next election based on vision and courage all of which has been concealed from Morrison, an unscrupulous liar and pedlar of fear mongering hyperbole, fir the sake of gaining power. That vision thing could ironically be founded on a number of royal commissions into how hopeless and corrupt the coalition has been over 10 years and the investigations and prosecutions by the new Federal Integrity Commission. That will be fun.
Began watching CH 7 Leaders Debate.
Initial reaction: This is degrading for both Leaders. Both senior politicians and both with full responsibility for their respective Parties. Question . . . Who decides such events are to be managed, promoted by Commercial vested interests?
What part, if any, does the Australian Electorate have in ‘who’ conducts, stage manages such events? Why is it, not a parliamentary function to host such potentially, volatile and influential engagements? Why was the national ABC EXCLUDED?
Every day Australian culture, language increasingly reflective, not of Australian culture, but American culture. And Our parliamentary system through events like last and earlier nights, follows suit.
Is there some contradiction or incoherence when Frydenburg boasts about the great resilience of the economy now at the same time as Morrison insists it will all collapse in a heap if the minimum wage is maintained?
Another way of saying ‘it is Governments that lose elections’ or rather ‘Oppositions should not get in the road of a Government hell bent on losing an election’.
What is most surprising is that the Government, it’s Media supporter, and it’s ‘rusted on’ supporters, do not seem to know why they are losing. After a decade of ‘same same’, of solutions only for the problems of the top 5-10% of the population, the surprise, and the sadness, is that the issue has always been in front of their eyes but they do not see or, maybe, do not care/can’t believe that looking after themselves alone is not the correct/honourable way to run a country. No wonder it is time for a change.
Mike Riley was ideal in the role, couldn’t fault him.
Albo missed two opportunities:
-making it clear the Murrugappan family’s return to Biloela would be facilitated by his government
-highlighting the almost one trillion dollar debt of the Coalition government, the self-professed experts of our economy