What have you done for me lately? Question voters have for ScoMo and Albo

As the election campaign draws to a close, weary voters will likely make their decision based on the answer to one last burning question for both the men who want to be PM.

What have you done for me lately? It’s a political maxim as well as a 1986 song by Janet Jackson.

It’s also a key question from voters in the final days of a drawn-out federal election campaign.

Australia might have experienced comparatively fewer deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic than many countries and our economy might have roared back in rude health.

But many voters are tired of governments, having endured crushing lockdowns and vaccine rollout problems, and have tuned out from the election battle.

They also have become accustomed to huge government spending to save their jobs or boost the health system, blunting the impact of an economic scare campaign.

These twin pressures will be dramatically highlighted in the next two days, with the release today of wage growth data and tomorrow’s unemployment figures.

Labor will argue wages have not kept pace with soaring living costs, while economists are forecasting the jobless rate will have a three in front of it – a staggering achievement after pandemic-induced shutdowns.

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is asking voters to reward him with another term for presiding over Australia’s mostly successful Covid-19 response and an economy roaring back to life.

He’s arguing his rival, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, is simply not up to the job of running the country, let alone being responsible for steering the nation’s finances.

But Mr Albanese argues mainstream Australians have been left behind on wages by an out-of-touch Mr Morrison, who hasn’t done much for them lately, if at all.

It’s more than possible for a prime minister to win a war but lose the subsequent election, as Winston Churchill discovered in 1945, when the United Kingdom hero was defeated by Labour in a landslide.

PM Scott Morrison. Picture: Jason Edwards

More recently, South Australian Liberal Premier Steven Marshall, who steered arguably the nation’s most successful Covid-19 response, in March was ousted after just one term in a landslide victory by the Peter Malinauskas-led ALP.

The bell will toll for either Mr Morrison or Mr Albanese in just a few days.

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Originally published as What have you done for me lately? Question voters have for ScoMo and Albo