Political experts reveal truth behind Coalition’s lack of policies

It’s a big, glaring headache that’s plagued the Prime Minister for his entire election campaign — but he’s hoping voters haven’t noticed.

There’s a huge problem with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s election pitch — but for weeks on end, he’s been trying to pull the wool over our eyes and keep it hidden.

During the campaign, Labor has announced new policy after new policy and for the most part, Mr Morrison has responded by attacking his opponent, rather than announcing a stack of reforms of his own.

In fact, over the past few weeks, the two leaders’ roles appear to have flipped, with Mr Morrison seeming to assume the role of opposition leader by constantly slamming his rival, while Mr Shorten has taken the lead on policy.

And one key moment from Wednesday night’s leaders’ debate put the spotlight on that very issue.

During the debate, each leader was able ask his opponent several questions — and as political analysts like Michelle Grattan noted, Mr Morrison seized the chance to question Labor’s superannuation and negative gearing stance.

But Mr Shorten had a very different tactic, instead asking questions that cleverly managed to highlight his own party’s agenda by challenging the Prime Minister to match Labor’s cancer funding and childcare policies.

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According to Professor Marc Stears, the director of the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney, the Coalition’s lack of policies is likely a ploy to hide the party’s deep internal conflicts.

“The risk for Scott Morrison more than not announcing anything is that people will cotton on to why,” he told news.com.au.

“He could get away with an election campaign without announcing huge numbers (of policies) if people think the party is stable and unified.

“But I do worry for him that people know the reason he’s not announcing new policies is because almost every issue divides the Liberals and if they start to assassinate each other again, it’s not a good look.”

Prof Stears said Mr Morrison was “running a very focused campaign” in a deliberate attempt to divert attention away from the Coalition’s “rocky” recent history and “internal divisions”.

As a consequence, he was playing on two common “anxieties” some voters have about Labor — Bill Shorten himself, and economic security — by employing a “standard conservative election strategy” known as “project fear”, which involves making the public “uneasy” about certain topics.

The difference between the leaders was clear during the third leaders’ debate at the National Press Club. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

“There’s an opportunity to keep reminding people about those doubts they have — (the Coalition) are not trying to create anything new or to convince people to think differently, they’re kneading people into thinking ‘I have these doubts, don’t take the risk’,” Prof Stears said.

He said one of the smartest moves of either campaign so far was the recent “love-a-thon” at Labor’s official election campaign launch, which saw former prime ministers Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating put aside their bad blood for a positive public reunion.

Fellow political expert and Deakin University academic Geoff Robinson agreed and said there was “real division” within the Coalition regarding its ideological direction, which could be behind the lack of new policies.

“Getting rid of Turnbull was the flashpoint that stared the ideological division bubbling away,” he said, noting Labor appeared to be “pretty united” now compared to the tumultuous Rudd-Gillard years.

He said knifing Malcolm Turnbull may have been a mistake, with 7 per cent of regular Labor voters supporting the Coalition at the last election.

“Turnbull gave (the Coalition) a bit of an advantage because he had the appeal of being modern and future-facing which voters like … Turnbull had more crossover appeal than Morrison does,” Dr Robinson said.

“(The Prime Minister) is playing to the Liberal base, but I’m not sure if that’s enough to win this election.”

Both leaders are playing it safe — but neither have the ‘charisma’ of former leaders like Bob Hawke. Pictures: Darren England/Mick Tsikas/AAP

Dr Robinson said one of the biggest failings of the Labor campaign so far had been not fighting back strongly enough when the Coalition accused the party of economic mismanagement, while the Coalition’s was its “absence of a vision for the future” or “cut-through policies”.

Both pundits agreed the leaders were running “predictable” campaigns designed to appeal to each party’s base, with Labor prioritising cost of living pressures and “standing up for ordinary people” while Mr Morrison played up the Coalition’s economic track record.

Dr Stears said while Labor had announced a slew of policies which sparked debate on how Australia would actually pay for them, none seemed “risky” enough to truly alarm voters.

Both experts said Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten were playing it safe — and that as a result, the public were “switching off” from a “boring” campaign, with neither possessing the “genuine charisma” of former leaders like Bob Hawke.

The most recent Roy Morgan poll revealed Labor now has a narrow lead of 51 per cent over the Coalition’s 49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, compared with a much wider gap just a month ago.

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