Morrison’s final pitch to voters: it’s not time

Scott Morrison will deliver his final pitch today offering a commitment to aspiration, home ownership, low taxes and personal liberty.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison campaigning in Sydney at a Chinese community event. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison will deliver his final pitch to Australians today ­offering a commitment to aspiration, home ownership, low taxes and personal liberty while warning voters against surrendering control of their lives and their wallets to Canberra under a radical Labor experiment.

Bill Shorten will travel to ­Sydney seeking to revive Gough Whitlam’s “It’s time” campaign when he leads a “vote for change” rally in Blacktown at Bowman Hall where the late Labor prime minister made his 1972 policy speech.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian before an address at the National Press Club today, the Prime Minister said the election was the most important decision Australians would make since 2007. “This time we have a clear warning … last time Australia got this change, they got Kevin Rudd, and they got him and paid for it for a decade,” Mr Morrison said.

“I think this election is about trying to protect and defend Australians from governments who think ‘Give me all your money and I’ll solve all your problems’ is the way to run the country.

“The problem with that is they never run the country well, they never solve the problems and they still spend the money. I think Australians are wise to that. And I think people resent Canberra can tell you what sort of job you can have and how much money you should be paying them.”

Both leaders will today sharpen their message ahead of Saturday’s poll, in a race both camps ­concede has tightened considerably over the course of the ­campaign and could come down to the wire.

The Labor leader will argue that a new generation has the chance for change and the “door stands ajar”. He will also warn of the risks posed by a “Coalition of chaos”, and warn against a ­“Morrison-Palmer-Hanson minority government”.

With more than three million pre-poll votes already lodged in a ­record turnout, Mr Morrison has honed his message to what he claims is a choice between family and individual aspiration or social and economic engineering. He said his decision to focus on home ownership in the final week ­defined the Coalition’s agenda as housing was a defining issue.

“It is at the core of aspiration for most Australians,” Mr Morrison told The Australian.

“It is the single most identifiable demonstration of Australian aspiration … I want the election to be a choice between aspiration and surrendering aspiration to government. I’m trying to tell people, I want to unleash the great capacity of Australians.

“What Labor is saying is just send us your money and we will look after the rest. This week has been about focusing Australians on that choice and the price of that choice.”

Mr Morrison said his pitch today would focus on Labor’s taxes and their impact in undercutting home values, forcing rents up and cutting away at retirees’ savings.

“I want this election to be a choice about aspiration and continuing to support aspiration or surrender aspiration to government in the form of higher taxation and bigger spending programs,” he said.

“I don’t want them (Australians) to surrender their choices to the government, I want them to have more of them. I believe Australians are the source and strength of the ­country’s future and I’m choosing them and therefore asking them to choose me. Bill is choosing the Labor Party, the government and himself. He assumes governments are the solution to every problem. I don’t think Australians agree with that …. not the Australians I have met.”

Mr Shorten handpicked the venue for his final major address of the campaign, seeking to draw on its significance for “Labor and Australia”. He told The Australian last night: “The election is a choice between real change or more of the same cuts and chaos. It’s a choice between Labor’s united and experienced team, or the unstable Morrison-Palmer-One Nation ­coalition.”

His speech will focus on “vote for change”, with climate change positioned as a major feature.

The event will be attended by Labor’s leadership group, western Sydney MPs and hundreds of “grassroots supporters”. While not attempting to compare current times with Whitlam’s, the speech will attempt to push Mr Shorten’s pitch that this election is a generational decision for ­voters.

Mr Morrison accused Labor of being “patronising and condescending” to voters with its “case for change” pitch. “I haven’t been going around telling people what they should be doing … I have been listening to what they want to do,” the Prime Minister said.

He accused Labor of having a social agenda that sought to judge people with different views, which was highlighted by Labor’s assault on Mr Morrison’s faith.