James Campbell: First-home pledge hot property for Morrison

Scott Morrison’s first-home buyer pledge will prove popular in the short term, and anything to ease the fall in home ownership will help the Liberals in the long term, writes James Campbell.

The criticism of Scott Morrison’s campaign, going into Sunday, was that while we knew what he’s against — basically everything Bill Shorten wants to do — he hasn’t really given people anything new to make them vote for him.

To be fair, there’s no doubt the PM has improved his position hugely by his non-stop attacks on Shorten’s changes to negative gearing and plan to end franking credits for self-funded retirees and others, his opposition to Labor’s plans to put up capital gains tax, and his hammering of Labor over the expense of its carbon- reduction proposals.

But most people would still have struggled to name a single thing his government planned to deliver if re-elected, aside from its infrastructure promises.

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Most people still have struggled to name a single thing Scott Morrison’s government planned to deliver if re-elected, aside from its infrastructure promises. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

An offer to first-home buyers that will remove the need for them to buy lenders’ mortgage insurance goes a long way towards fixing this problem. Not only is it likely to prove popular in the very short term — that is to say, between now and Saturday evening — but anything that helps to arrest the decline of home ownership rates will also do the Liberals a world of good in the long term.

Because, as the number of renters keeps increasing, so does the pool of potential Labor voters.

There’s no doubt Scott Morrison has improved his position hugely by his non-stop attacks on Bill Shorten’s changes to negative gearing, writes James Campbell. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Whether Morrison ends up getting credit for it is an open question, given that Labor took less than three hours to match it.

Otherwise, his speech was a strangely low-key affair.

He spoke of his early life, tying it to the Liberal values of thrift and self-reliance, and he attacked Shorten’s spending promises as a threat to all.

The only other big commitment was the last-minute pledge to fund the full government contribution to building East West Link.

This should probably have been promised a lot earlier, but was clearly left as a pitch for undecided voters who are tuning in this week.