Election: Scott Morrison’s promise to change too little, too late?

Scott Morrison tours Punt Road Winery in the Yarra Valleyn on Friday. Picture: Jason Edwards

Scott Morrison’s offer to change his ways is a concession that as Prime Minister and as a leader he’s on the nose in the electorate.

It is also a recognition he has gone backwards during the first five weeks of the campaign and is an increasing drag on the Coalition vote while Anthony Albanese’s support and confidence have grown.

This is a pivotal point in the 2022 campaign aimed at setting a more optimistic, hopeful tone and a more personal offering from the Prime Minister on the eve of the Coalition launch as polls continue to weigh down the government.

But the concession is also a calculated attempt to turn the weakness of his unpopularity into a strength in what could be his last days as Prime Minister and head off a looming, potentially fatal, loss of whatever momentum the Coalition has.

What’s more, Morrison is offering “change” to voters without the need to dump the Coalition or overcoming their still substantial hesitancy about the Opposition Leader.

Morrison’s pitch to the people who don’t like him is that he’s been like a bulldozer and seen as a bit of a bastard during the past two years because he’s had to behave like a tough bastard to get Australia through the global pandemic.

“Over the last three years, and particularly the last two, what Australians have needed from me going through this pandemic has been strength and resilience,” he volunteered on Friday.

He went further on Saturday, telling reporters: “I will seek to… explain my motives and my concerns and empathise a lot more.”

So far in the campaign, Morrison just saying that the tough love of border lockdowns, quarantine and restrictions were necessary has not worked for him. He now wants to flip that negative of unpopularity into a virtuous self-sacrifice in the national interest.

What Morrison is seeking to do with the bearing of both his soul and throat is to assuage those who dislike him so much by arguing that he had to be tough, not popular, in the past two years and to offer hope and plans for the future.

Refuseniks who will not declare who they intend to vote for or even disclose who they have voted for in pre-polling hold the fate of Morrison and Albanese in their hands unless there is a major shift of sentiment next week.

Morrison is asking people to look through his cold and hard demeanour at a time of crisis and to offer them “different gears” in his character that he will be able to demonstrate as the global pandemic passes.

Albanese has proven more adept at covering mistakes and converting weaknesses into political pluses – his reversal of fortune on a disastrous economic proposal to link wage rises to the 5.1 per cent inflation rate to a populist campaign holding a $1 coin and supporting people on low wages getting a couple of cups of coffee was brilliant.

Morrison’s offer to change is less certain to capture popular sentiment but he’s got no choice if he wants to address his own popularity and exploit the hesitation about Albanese.