Morrison comeback linked to coronavirus

Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressing the media about new restrictions and advice for Australians on how to deal with the spread of COVID-19. Picture: Richard Dobson

There has been a flight to political certainty in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and a rehabilitation of Scott Morrison as leader in a time of crisis.

The first Newspoll to gauge the levels of anxiety in the community as the pandemic and its impacts escalate globally shows voters flocking back to the major parties.

This is not surprising. But for Morrison it will provide a reassurance that the government at least has the public behind it. Morrison has been tested once as a leader during a crisis. It didn’t go well. But this is a crisis of unprecedented scale, outside of wartime, and one that is likely to be long lived and deeper in economic and social consequences than the global financial crisis.

The poll suggests that after a collapse in support following the perceived poor handling of the bushfires, confidence in Morrison as Prime Minister has been largely restored.

His political comeback is linked now to the ongoing handling of the crisis. And it has a long way to play out.

This poll, conducted in an extraordinary time, was less about politics than it was about competency. The Morrison government has passed that test.

The risk from here on in for the Prime Minister is that the community gets ahead of the government in developing its own collective response.

Morrison has projected as a strong leader at a time that people are looking for definition and certainty.

There are many questions now being asked amid mixed messages from both state and federal governments.

While Morrison needs to remain upbeat about the nation pulling through, people demand that he also levels with them about how bad it is going to get.

They are also looking to government to tell them what to do. The urge to use common sense appears to be falling on deaf ears. Already schools have decided to close down voluntarily while the community is in the grip of panic-buying and companies have enforced a work-from-home rule.

The pandemic is taking on a life of its own and one of Morrison’s new challenges is a social one. The government needs to prevent an outbreak of hysteria.

And it needs to have a view of what the country is going to look like coming out the other end.

The effects of the pandemic are likely to fundamentally change the lives of Australians, and not just for the short term.

There is no rule book either for what a government looks like in the eyes of the community on the other side of an event like this.