Bungler versus bulldozer: The Daily Telegraph’s federal election 2022 verdict

Election campaigns show the public how prospective leaders cope under pressure and manage the shifting strategic demands of a campaign. Read The Daily Telegraph’s verdict of the 2022 federal election.

Election campaigns are not just platforms for politicians to promote their policies.

They also allow the public to see how prospective leaders cope under pressure and how successfully they deal with the shifting strategic demands of running a campaign.

Typically, candidates will make their biggest blunders as campaigns take their toll. John Hewson’s disastrous birthday cake explanation of the GST, for example, came just 10 days before the 1983 election.

And Julia Gillard’s “no ­carbon tax” vow was made just five days before the 2010 ­election.

This time around, Anthony Albanese did something different. His first errors, made under very little pressure, occurred in the very first hours of the 2022 campaign.

During his first press conference, the Opposition Leader could not recall Australia’s cash rate or, more astonishingly, our unemployment rate. Those details should be at the front of every federal politician’s mind.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Jason Edwards

Further errors littered the Labor leader’s campaign.

It is important to note that these were not, as some have disingenuously claimed, “gotcha”-style setups. In fact, some were straight-up Dorothy Dixers, such as are asked in parliament by a representative’s friendly party allies.

A question about Albanese’s NDIS plans should have been an easy opportunity for him to explain and expand upon those plans in glowing terms. But Albanese could not even provide a basic six-point outline.

And then, to bookend his weeks of confusion, Albanese told ABC radio host Lisa Millar: “Our borders are closed, Lisa. Our borders are closed.”

But they’ve been open for months. Since our international barricade was lifted, some 920,000 temporary visa holders have arrived in Australia, including 442,100 visitors, 168,000 students and 90,300 people on temporary skilled visas.

Australian Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Tellingly, perhaps, Albanese’s comment was again in response to a question about unemployment. It could be that the Labor leader simply struggles to ­counter the government’s impressive reduction of unemployment to a 48-year low of just 3.9 per cent.

Scott Morrison’s campaign performance, by contrast, was big on detail and contained a breakthrough housing policy allowing people to access their super.

This represents a profound shift away from superannuation’s collectivism. It empowers people to take responsibility for their own futures.

There have been notable fumbles, yet in most key areas the government – throughout the triple challenges of deadly bushfires, a historic pandemic and then raging floods – has been altogether laudable.

The AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and the US is plainly the greatest advance for our security since the ANZUS pact was signed in 1951.

JobSeeker and JobKeeper were central to Australia’s economic survival during the worst months of the Covid pandemic. Their worth is now proven by that latest 3.9 per cent unemployment figure.

And the Coalition government took a global lead in the battle to extract Covid origin explanations from China’s communist dictatorship.

Under this government, Australia has either held its ground or made significant economic and global advances during the nation’s most fraught and testing time since World War Two.

The Prime Minister and his team have negotiated our way through a minefield of dangers and have earned the chance to govern during a more stable period.

The Daily Telegraph, printed and published by the proprietor, Nationwide News Pty Ltd A.C.N. 008438828 of 2 Holt St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, at 26-52 Hume Highway, Chullora. Responsibility for election comment is taken by the Editor, Ben English.

Originally published as Bungler versus bulldozer: The Daily Telegraph’s federal election 2022 verdict