Forget Voldemort, it’s vision that Morrison needs

Treating Turnbull as the Liberals’ own Lord Voldemort won’t be enough for Morrison to win. Against a strong and unscrupulous opposition, he needs big, inspirational projects and policy, writes Miranda Devine.

It’s amazing how quickly a deposed prime minister is forgotten when things are looking up. One impressive week in parliament, a glimmer of hope in an opinion poll and, whooshka! The king is dead, long live the king.

The reason Opposition Leader Bill Shorten raised Malcolm Turnbull’s name in every Question Time since last August’s leadership coup was because Labor’s polling was telling them that leadership instability was the main reason voters had turned off the Coalition.

It’s the reason that Morrison turns instantly cold and wary when Turnbull is brought up. He must have been furious about the Narnia lament last week of his Leader of the House Christopher Pyne who mournfully likened the axed PM to CS Lewis’ Christ-like hero Aslan, the lion.

But in his Canberra office three days after Pyne’s pining went public, Morrison rejected any suggestion that it bothered him.

“I ignored it. I just ignored it. This is how I do it. I am extremely focused and very disciplined. If I let the distractions of this place distract me then I would not have achieved what I have in the last six months.”

Asked what mythical figure Turnbull was to him, if not a lion, Morrison said: “I’m not going into any of this… Malcolm’s a friend.”

MORE FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: Morrison has flipped the tables on a smug opposition

Christopher Pyne absurdly compared Malcolm Turnbull to Narnia’s Aslan, when in reality he is more of a Lord Voldemort. Picture: Kelly Barnes/AAP

A pretty mythical friend, too, judging by Turnbull’s rabbit punches against the government since his departure.

Thanks to his unhelpful incursions — from the defection of Julia Banks to the preselection of Craig Kelly and the toxic tweets of his son Alex — Turnbull has become “You-Know-Who” or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” in the parliamentary party. A Liberal Lord Voldemort.

Morrison has to cast a “taboo spell” on Turnbull’s name because every time the electorate is reminded of him, out come the political death-eaters to destroy any chance of recovery.

Malcolm Turnbull as Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. Artwork: Terry Pontikos

The spell has even worked on the Opposition. Last week every second question Shorten asked in Question Time mentioned Turnbull and his troops kept up a steady refrain of “Where’s Malcolm?”.

But yesterday, not a peep.

By the time Turnbull’s memoir is published at the end of the year his abbreviated prime ministership will be little more than a footnote in political history.

Time will likely restore Abbott’s unfulfilled legacy to greatness in the annals of the Liberal party, unlike his assassin’s. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

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And if Morrison wins the unwinnable election, he gets to reset the clock at to Year Zero.

If anyone can pull it off, ScoMo can.

But, no matter how adept a politician he is, and how clever and hardworking is his treasurer Josh Frydenberg, it will take more than scare campaigns on borders and taxes to win the next election.

After six patchy years people are itching to vote against the government, and with the help of the unions and the oh-so unaffiliated GetUp, Labor’s ground game is stronger, as is its talent for unscrupulous scare campaigns ——a la Mediscare in 2016.

What Morrison needs is a vision — and the old jobs and growth doesn’t cut it.

He could do worse than to emulate John Howard’s family centric approach in which every policy had to be judged on whether it strengthened the family unit, “the great building block of our society”.

Howard’s ambition was “to profoundly advantage the families of middle Australia” and it helped win him four terms.

Scott Morrison needs to draw inspiration from John Howard. Family-focused policies earned him four terms, and laid the groundwork for future conservative voters. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

More recently, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has had great success using the same strategy, He has won his third election, with generous tax incentives for families to have more children so that Hungary doesn’t have to rely on immigration to boost an ageing population.

Orban’s latest inspiration is a promise that women who have at least four children will be exempt from paying personal income tax payment for the rest of their lives.

After eight years of such family-friendly policies, Hungary is experiencing a baby boom, women are more likely to get married than their European counterparts and to marry younger. The number of marriages has soared, while divorces and abortion have plunged.

Strengthening families produces citizens who are more likely to vote conservative.

So does making it easier for young people to buy their own home. A nation of renters has no stake in society and therefore no reason to vote conservative. And that is where we’re heading when you look at the rapidly declining home ownership rates for younger people.

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Rather than bashing Millennials for eating smashed avocado and still living with their parents, baby boomers should realise that they’d be moving out of home and paying off a mortgage if they could.

Immigration and sky-high state stamp duty taxes are among the culprits.

But if you look at the east coast of the United States, where housing is far more affordable, you can see what a difference transportation makes.

High-speed rail between Sydney and Melbourne could open up a commuter corridor that would give families access to a bucolic semi-rural lifestyle in affordable dormitory suburbs a comfortable journey from work.

Sydney to Melbourne is the world’s fourth busiest air traffic corridor. In between is 730 kilometres that could easily be connected by a fast train. Greenies should even welcome the carbon emissions saved from avoided air miles. We’ve been talking about high speed rail for decades.

It’s time to give Australians something to vote for.

@mirandadevine