The pitch Scott Morrison used to win over Australia

This is the pitch the Prime Minister used to win over Australians, speaking to the “quiet” ones, not the rent-a-crowd protesting coal mines or preaching veganism.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on election night. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Scott Morrison’s secret to winning an unexpected third term for the Coalition government wasn’t, in hindsight, so secret after all.

The answer was hiding in plain sight. On becoming PM just 268 days ago, Morrison looked down TV camera lenses and made a direct pitch: “We are on your side.”

There was no caveat on just who “you” was; no hint of class warfare — and it gave a reassuring nod to millions of Australians that he’d support their hopes and dream.

Then newly sworn-in Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaking in August 2018. Picture: Martin Ollman/Getty Images

It wasn’t a pitch to the party faithful, conservatives or progressives. It was a pitch to aspirational Aussies everywhere. A bid to unify a nation which appeared divided.

“We’re on your side because we share beliefs and values in common, as you go about everything you do each day,” he said.

“Getting up in the morning, getting off to work, turning up onsite, getting the parent you’re caring for up in the morning, exchanging that smile, each and every day.

“Getting the kids off to school, getting home at night — perhaps, if you’re lucky, a bit of time together, those happy moments too often too far between with the pressures that so many families face today.”

No mention of salary. No judgment on occupation nor circumstance. It didn’t seek to demonise those on the fringes, nor those living more comfortably than others.

It spoke, we now know, to what the PM calls “the quiet Australians”. Not the rent-a-crowd protesting coal mines, or preaching veganism. Or the small but breathless Aussies bearing their souls hourly on Twitter. It was just those going about their daily lives.

After almost three years trailing in the opinion polls, most Coalition MPs had given up hope of returning. The party was divided and threatened to tear itself apart.

Surviving was a day-to-day proposition on the floor of parliament, but somehow Morrison simply soldiered on.

A no-frills Budget promising tax cuts and better days for the bottom line ahead gave him the opportunity to turn the tables and make the five-week campaign about nothing else but the risk Bill Shorten posed to the way of life for these “quiet Australians”.

Armed with research that voters were unsure about Shorten, he attempted to exploit it for all it was worth.

It seemed, at times, over the top. Labor MPs described many of the attacks as “pernicious” and “totally unscrupulous”. The attacks on Labor came from all sides. From Clive Palmer, from the Prime Minister, business, industry and parts of the commentariat.

Rents up, house prices down, the cost of a ute set to soar, and no answers on how much an ambitious climate policy would hit the economy.

Some of these were disproved by experts but they permeated the kitchen table conversations of the outer suburbs across the country. On Facebook a bushfire erupted about Labor’s death tax.

The campaign was an old-fashioned Liberal one. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

The campaign win has already been likened to Donald Trump, to Brexit and harnessing the “Deplorables”. But in reality it was just an old-fashioned Liberal Party campaign.

Labor’s overhaul to franking credits — which the Coalition dubbed a “retiree tax” — also killed Labor among elderly Australians.

Victorian MP Tim Wilson, who raised the profile of the retiree tax as head of a parliamentary inquiry into the policy, said the election was about “security and opportunity”.

“Older Australians didn’t want their bank balance on the ballot, and younger Australians wanted to have their go too,” Mr Wilson said.

MORE: SEATS MORRISON NEEDS TO FORM GOVERNMENT

SHORTEN BACKS PLIBERSEK AS LABOR LEADER

Behind the scenes those close to Morrison had talked up their chances. They spoke of a path to victory. Most of those they told had their doubts. But the man himself never had his own.

While Shorten promised a better life for some, Morrison sent a simple national message and allowed his marginal seat MPs across the country to work on their pet projects.

The campaign would be won in each and every marginal seat. For every one they lost, the had to gain another.

He did it by providing an antidote to people who felt their retirement savings, their investments or even their values might be under threat.

Morrison’s entire campaign spoke entirely to convincing Australians he was a safe pair of hands. And millions of them rewarded him in spades.

THE ROAD MAP TO LIBERAL VICTORY

HOUSING

Labor’s planned changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax dominated the campaign. Under the policy, negative gearing would have been limited to new housing.

The policy would have been grandfathered, meaning it would not have affected those who already negatively gear their properties.

The Coalition argued the policy would push down house prices and increase rents in a property market which was already floundering.

Labor took the policy to the 2016 election, which gave party strategists confidence many Australians favoured it.

Liberal insiders say the policy worked against Labor as it was symbolic of the party’s attack on aspirational Australians.

Labor also had a policy to reduce the capital gains tax discount from assets held longer than 12 months.

FRANKING CREDITS

The Coalition campaigned hard against Labor’s “retiree tax”.

Labor announced its policy to scrap refundable franking credits for self-funded retirees early last year.

Immediately after announcing the policy, Labor was forced to change it to exempt about 300,000 pensioners.

More than 800,000 self-funded retirees would have been up to $20,000 worse off a year under the plan.

Liberal strategists say the policy really started biting for Labor late last year as elderly Australians started looking at it in greater detail.

Victorian MP Tim Wilson’s parliamentary inquiry into the plan also helped create a groundswell of anger.

When pressed on the policy during the campaign, Mr Shorten called franking credit refunds “a gift” to wealthy Australians — further angering those affected. Older Australians in key marginal seats left Labor in droves on Saturday.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Bill Shorten had an ambitious emissions reduction policy of 45 per cent by 2030.

This compared with the Coalition’s target of 26-28 per cent. Scott Morrison repeatedly attacked Mr Shorten over the potential cost to the economy.

Throughout the campaign, Mr Shorten failed to outline the cost of the policy. Liberals say this played into voters’ distrust of the Labor leader.

ADANI SCEPTICISM

Mr Shorten and some of his senior frontbenchers have voiced a lot of scepticism about the Adani coal mine in central Queensland. It allowed the Coalition to launch an aggressive campaign in that state, claiming Mr Shorten didn’t support the project. Key marginal seats in central and north Queensland recorded massive swings towards the Coalition, suggesting the mine played a huge part in keeping Mr Morrison in The Lodge. Former Greens member Bob Brown, who led a “Stop Adani Convoy” through regional Queensland, also didn’t help. Expect the mine to now go ahead with LNP MPs emboldened by the result in the northern state.

ELECTRIC CARS

Mr Shorten announced the policy to have 50 per cent of new car sales electric by 2030 just before the campaign started. Scott Morrison initially campaigned hard against the policy, saying the Labor leader was waging a “war on the weekend”. Labor also had a policy to increase fuel efficiency of cars, imposing a cap on manufacturers from making vehicles that produce more than 105 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre. It is believed the policy did not go down well with tradies.

TAX CUTS

Australians on less than $40,000 will not get tax cuts of between $200 and $350. However, the government will continue with its plan to give workers on between $48,000 and $90,000 a tax offset of $1080 from July 1.

Originally published as The pitch Scott Morrison used to win over Australia