Essence of the election campaign: an unpopular PM, and ‘unknown’ opponent

FEDERAL ELECTION TEAM 2022. 10/04/2022 Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrives in Nowra and does his first TV interviews of the campaign`. Picture: Jason Edwards

The opening press conferences of the campaign went entirely as expected, including as to the underlying questions being asked of the leaders: will Scott Morrison stand for conservatives and what does Anthony Albanese stand for?

The Prime Minister’s decision to send a short, sharp message about what he stands for and to question what the Opposition Leader stands for resulted in one brief, incumbent message from the government and an opening salvo from the Albanese who was prepared to “talk out” the press conference.

This is the essence of the election campaign to come: an electorally unpopular prime minister standing on a strong economic and national security platform against an opposition leader who has left his response on all issues to the last minutes of the election campaign.

These are conscious decisions by both leaders and will set the parameters of the next six weeks politicking which will concentrate on the characters of Morrison and Albanese and what they stand for and have achieved in their political lives.

Morrison wants to make a virtue of facing hostile media and Labor questions for the last two years at least and Albanese is seeking to appeal to voters as a fresh face at a time for a change.

Both positions are old political tropes borne out by Sundays’ opening press conferences- with Morrison paradoxically cutting short on answering questions and Albanese trying to exhaust reporters’ questions to demonstrate that he’s not hiding.

Both leaders are sticking to their scripts at the start of the campaign. We’ll see how they stand up to the gruelling test of a six-week campaign and how they fare in their last press conference.