Covid talk revival in bid to capture Premier popularity

The PM brought Covid back into the spotlight on Sunday in a bid to capture some of the popularity State Premier’s garnered during the pandemic. Matthew Killoran explains.

Speaking to an assembly of the party faithful, Scott Morrison spoke more about the pandemic during that 30 minutes than through the rest of the campaign combined.

Copping a bruising from Labor’s effective tactic at making the campaign about his popularity, or lack there of, Mr Morrison has pivoted in recent days to soften his image.

The pandemic revival not only in his speech, but an extended advert featuring the PM and colleagues talking about the tough calls made during the height of Covid, plays into this as he attempts to rebuild his reputation.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is his campaign speech seeking to soften his image. Picture: Jason Edwards

State Premiers had unprecedented popularity during the first 18 months of the disaster and

Mr Morrison is seeking to capture at least some of that benefit.

He may regret not calling the election in August or November of last year, with the state leaders facing re-election in 2020 and 2021 trotting across the line, while the Liberals in South Australia were turfed out in March this year.

But far from relying on this alone, Mr Morrison reached out to young voters with the biggest housing policy so far.

There was a direct pitch to Queenslanders, with a cancer centre to be based in the state.

Queensland was definitely the focus of the Opposition’s rival rally, held in Brisbane.

Morrison addresses the crowd at the Liberal Party election campaign launch. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Brisbane candidate Madonna Jarrett, considered Labor’s best chance of making a dent in the Coalition’s “fortress Queensland” was first to introduce Anthony Albanese, followed by “Kevin from Queensland” also known as former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Morrison declared he was “just warming up”, but the results on election night will reveal if his campaign has been undercooked.