Lessons learnt: speak softly and carry a big message

PrIme Minister Scott Morrison speaks to media in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Scott Morrison was delivered a sharp reminder three weeks ago when engaged in a donnybrook with the states over lockdowns and border controls.

Voters react badly when a government strays off message.

It was a lesson that his campaign team learned very quickly during last year’s election.

When the Prime Minister was hit on the scone with an egg, an event that dominated the television news that night, the Liberal Party tracking went immediately and sharply down.

Every time thereafter that Morrison was forced into the weeds, the poll numbers nosedived.

This was almost certainly the case when Morrison became entangled in a blame game with the state Labor premiers a few weeks ago.

The result was a sharp drop in support for the government and for the Prime Minister.

Voters don’t care who makes it, they just hate noise.

And this visceral reaction to political conflict has been heightened during the pandemic when there is a singular issue at stake.

The latest Newspoll results bear this out.

Morrison and the Coalition have recovered all the ground they lost a few weeks back.

And for the simple reason that he dialled down the tone and got back on message.

That message is economic recovery.

As one of his advisers suggested, these are now the two most important words in the political lexicon.

Morrison has been seeking for some time now to move beyond the “survival” politics of the pandemic to how the country will recover economically.

There are signs now that the pendulum is starting to swing this way in the general community, and quite strongly in some states.

This may mark the beginning of the inevitable shift away from the acute fears of viral spread to deepening concerns about the economic and mental health costs.

And this is where Morrison needs the community to be in two weeks as he and Josh Frydenberg prepare for what will be the most important post-war budget to have been handed down by any government.