Labor still to learn the lessons of Morrison

Scott Morrison built his reputation on the back of his success in “stopping the boats”.

Under Labor the boats kept coming and with the arrival of every boat a few more Labor voters ditched their long-held beliefs and dumped the Labor how-to-vote cards.

John Howard cleaned up on a platform from which he declared Australia would choose which people could gain entry to our country and on what terms. It was a powerful message Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen and their Labor comrades simply chose to ignore. That came at great cost. Labor found a way to lose yet another election it should have won and it has only itself to blame.

The Prime Minister knew he was on a winner and it is still doing him a power of good. Right now, Australians feel reasonably relaxed and comfortable. The economy has been steadily, if not spectacularly, growing.

Unemployment is relatively low and China is still buying our mineral resources. Morrison doesn’t need to see himself as a great reformer. As long as he appears to be a good manager and there are no worldwide economic catastrophes, he will stand on his record and be extremely hard to beat.

The tyranny of distance actually works in Australia’s favour. As millions try to escape poverty in Africa, they head for Europe and the UK. Thankfully Australia is not a favoured destination. Angela Merkel stained an otherwise stellar reputation by declaring Germany would open its borders to those escaping North Africa. As a mad scramble ensued and the queues grew way too rapidly, she was forced to withdraw her offer.

Boris Johnson may know how to exit Europe without a deal but he can’t remove Britain as the main target for African refugees. Even the truest of true believers would have to concede the welfare system in Britain is a magnet for refugees because of its generosity. Its colonial past doesn’t help much in this area either because it simply increases the numbers who believe they have some legitimate right of entry because of their history.

I have never forgotten that Britain quite happily abandoned its Commonwealth when it signed up to be a member of the European Union.

There was no room for sentiment and Britain opted to act in its own interests irrespective of the damage caused to its Commonwealth or any of its members. Oddly enough, the Commonwealth when it bands together is still quite an impressive group of nations.

Wherever the British went, they may have taken more than their fair share, but they also left behind the structure of a civil service that could keep the machinery of most governments turning over. When things are tough, the Brits even provided us with a suitable phrase — “lie back and think of England”.