Morrison vows to avoid Howard slips

Scott Morrison has pledged to avoid the mistakes of John Howard’s ill-fated 2007 campaign.

Scott Morrison flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Defence Minister Christopher Pyne in question time yesterday. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has pledged to avoid the mistakes of John Howard’s ill-fated 2007 campaign as he leaves open the possibility of holding an election as late as May 25.

The Prime Minister and outgoing Liberal grandee Julie Bishop both raised the spectre of Mr Howard’s 2007 loss — the last time the Coalition was ousted by the Labor Party — in what is likely to be the last meeting of Coalition MPs before the election.

Bill Shorten also faced his own electoral hurdles and his partyroom meeting was dominated over the ramifications of a disastrous NSW state election and former state leader Michael Daley’s campaign-losing comments about “Asians with PhDs” taking young people’s jobs.

Mr Morrison took aim at the Coalition’s “Go for Growth” slogan in 2007 and said his Liberal Party would have to better explain the benefits of economic growth not to lose power again.

“That campaign lacked the question, why?” he told the joint partyroom yesterday. Mr Morrison said he was determined to learn from the 2007 campaign’s mistakes and explain the benefits of economic growth, as well as the government’s economic record, to avoid losing government again to Labor.

Sources say he was upbeat about the Coalition’s electoral prospects, saying next month’s nat­ional poll was “ours to win, not ours to lose”.

“People don’t want Shorten … everyone saw in a short time they were government just how much damage Labor could do,” Mr Morrison told colleagues. “This election is ours to win, not ours to lose, it’s our to win.”

Mr Morrison also revealed to colleagues he had yet to make his mind up about the election date and nominated May 11, May 18 and May 25 as possibilities.

The possibility of May 25 as a polling day comes after weeks of speculation that Mr Morrison would call an election this weekend for a likely May 11 poll and a five-week campaign.

Liberal and Nationals MPs are nervous about potentially living through Senate estimates next week if the election is not called this weekend, warning that it could create havoc for the government so close to polling day.

Mr Morrison did confirm to his colleagues that after a 7pm pre-budget meeting last night, the ­Coalition would not meet again until after the federal election, which finally ruled out the possibility of parliament sitting on the week of April 15.

Meanwhile in the Labor caucus, NSW frontbenchers, including Tony Burke, were questioned by other MPs about the comments from Mr Daley’s state election loss and the damage done to the opposition’s chances with Asian-­Australian voters.

Mr Burke assured the MPs that he had made clear the comments were “unacceptable” and it was important to recognise how many Australians felt marginalised.

During the meeting, the Opposition Leader also highlighted his work in engaging Chinese-Australians, such as via his recent live question and answer session on Chinese social media site WeChat.

NSW-based Labor MP ­and communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland also addressed caucus about the loss and suggested the results varied from seat to seat and local issues had played a big role.

Mr Shorten was also questioned by MPs on the impact of the Easter holidays and the school holidays on the election campaign, considering some of these days were technically “non-campaign” days. ”I can’t guarantee you will win on election night, but we all need to be able to guarantee the Australian people how hard we will work,” he said.

“We don’t have a moment to lose.”