Scott Morrison vows to repay faith of ‘quiet Aussie’ voters with united vision
Scott Morrison will support the aspirations of the “quiet Australians” who handed him a historic win and he says he will end the ideological division Bill Shorten promoted for “political advantage”.
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Scott Morrison has pledged to support the aspirations of the “quiet Australians” who delivered him a historic win and end the class and ideological divisions 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 Coalition loss in 1993, saying Mr Shorten had lost the “allegedly unlosable election”.
Hopeful of reaching a governing majority of 76 seats, but still sitting on 74 on Sunday night, Mr Morrison said the “quiet Australians”, whose votes his victory was based on, had been simply “looking for a voice”.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Morrison declared he now had a mandate to govern in his own way and said voters had resoundingly rejected Labor’s politics of envy and the class-warfare 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’.”
BEATING THE ODDS
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.
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Pledging to govern from the centre, Mr Morrison said he will endeavour to unite Australians who Mr Shorten had sought to turn against each other for his own “political advantage”.
“I think 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 Mr Howard, who has described the unexpected win of having a whiff of the 1993 loss by Liberal leader John Hewson.
It was a comparison Mr Morrison accepted.
“There are some similarities, I suppose, the fact that you had an Opposition leader who allegedly had the unlosable election and then went and lost it,” he said.
“That’s about politics. I’ll let others make the historical comparisons. It’s my job to focus on the future and the agenda you’re going to pursue.”
UNITED FRONT
The election result signals an end to the disunity in the Liberal Party, which has now been cleared of any impediments with Malcolm Turnbull’s henchmen gone and the Tony Abbott era over.
Mr Morrison said he and Mr Howard shared a “recognition of the opportunity to renew the Liberal party”.
“This is my take,” Mr Morrison said. “Having gone through what has been a pretty tumultuous time in Australian politics over the last 12 months, I think Australians just want politicians to get back to work and do their job so they can go and do theirs, and that’s just what I’m going to do.”
NEW PRIORITIES
During the campaign, Mr Morrison faced criticism for failing to outline a bold agenda for his prime ministership, but he said his priorities were clear — give funding to Headspace to address mental illness and youth suicide, legislate the Budget and tax cuts and sort out problems with the NDIS.
He said under his leadership, the Coalition’s third term would have “a new freshness, a new level of determination and a renewal of our mandate and commitment to our economic and national security agenda and our services agenda”.
After just a few hours sleep, Mr Morrison started his first day as newly elected PM with a phone call from US President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and he has also been in contact with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and was expected to speak to British PM Theresa May on Sunday night.
Mr Morrison said Mr Trump had predicted his election win.
“He was very congratulatory and very pleased about the outcome. He said that he always thought that it would happen,” Mr Morrison said.
“We’d already struck up a good relationship and looking forward to the certainty of me being in the role for the next three years. We talked about that and I look forward to potentially being there later in the year but certainly getting together at the G20.”
The PM reached out to independents Zali Steggall, Andrew Wilkie, Bob Katter and Rebekha Sharkie, but conversations about supply and confidence are understood to be premature.
The Coalition is expecting to reach the 76 seats required for a majority based on likely wins in Wentworth and Macquarie but could even hit 78 if they pull off unlikely victories in Boothby and Chisolm.
On Sunday night, Mr Morrison celebrated his win by watching Cronulla play Manly at Shark Park with daughter Abbey, 11, who he said he didn’t expect to stay awake for the whole game, after they spent the previous night watching his election victory.
THE ROAD AHEAD UNDER THE COALITION
Up to $1080 in tax cuts will be pocketed by more than 10 million middle-income earners, self-funded retirees’ life savings won’t be raided and first homeowners will receive a leg-up under a returned Coalition government.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government would quickly turn to delivering tax cuts of up to $1080 into the pockets of Australians earning up to $126,000.
“The Labor Party have already said they will support that legislation, so it will have bipartisan support, so let’s get this legislation passed so that the Australian people get their tax cuts,” he said.
The tax cut will kick in from July 1 with 4.5 million Australians to score the maximum $1080 offset.
Retirees’ nest eggs will be protected from the cuts Labor was planning with its franking credit crackdown.
Labor’s plan to scrap franking credit cash refunds for retirees with self-managed super funds would have netted $58 billion to 2030.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had warned that up to 800,000 retirees would have suffered financially.
Workers earning more than $180,000 have also been spared a financial hit by the re-election of the Coalition, with Labor to have left those households worse off by $2908 a year in 2020 based on income tax, childcare and superannuation changes.
First homebuyers will now receive extra help under a key plank of the Coalition’s election policy that will allow singles earning less than $125,000 or couples earning less than $200,000 to secure a home loan with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent.
Young people will find it easier to take up a trade with the government to create 80,000 new apprenticeships as part of a $525 million funding package announced in the 2019 budget. It will also double incentive payments for hiring young workers to $8000 per employee.
Meanwhile, small businesses with a turnover of more than $50 million will retain their power to instantly write off new assets costing up to $30,000, which was another Budget reform.
Labor would have given firms with a turnover of less than $10 million a 30 per cent tax deduction for hiring job seekers younger than 25 or over 55. Labor had also promised a surplus double that of the Coalition. Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said its surplus in 2022-23 would be $21.7 billion compared with the Coalition’s forecast surplus of $9.2 billion.
Originally published as Scott Morrison vows to repay faith of ‘quiet Aussie’ voters with united vision
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