Overexposed and underwhelming, Scott Morrison appears to have run his course

Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne at Mortdale in southern Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Nikki Short

There is an overwhelming sense of doom hanging like a pall over the Morrison government.

If Scott Morrison embarked on an expedition to try to find some good news for his ­future, that search would undoubtedly prove fruitless and forlorn.

The polls are just one pointer but they are a significant one.

Everywhere the Prime Minister looks, he is beset by new perils. The latest bout of lavishing one-off goodies on the electorate just before an election suggests a serious lack of confidence about the result. Until now, Josh Frydenberg has stood out from his colleagues by being honest and responsible in his predictions about where the economy is heading.

Even honest Josh failed at the final hurdle and took the time-honoured route of throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at voters in a last throw of the dice in trying to hold on to office.

On the other side of the aisle, Anthony Albanese has sharpened his attack and spruced up his look. It is not hard to work out why Morrison has been delaying making the announcement of the election date. I’m not sure this delay is such a good idea because it does look to the average punter that you are holding off ­because you believe your time is up.

Maybe it is time to simply make a permanent arrangement for when an election is to be held. That would take the advantage of being able to set the date away from the government of the day and provide certainty to the electorate. This is the system now in NSW and it has worked well.

That Albanese is leading the PM in some polls in the category of who is preferred as prime minister is as crucial as it is significant. It is rare for the contender to be rated higher than the champion.

Given the amount of debt racked up by the Coalition, the task of doing the usual bucket job on Labor as the profligate spenders has been rendered hopeless, if not impossible. No government in history has spent like this one.

Having precious few policies upon which to campaign, you can expect a highly negative campaign in which you will see the Coalition playing the man. Albanese’s character will come under sustained attack but he is tough enough to ignore the personal jibes and get on with the job.

With the finishing line within reach and his lead undiminished, Albo, like most Australians, expects a Labor victory.

Taking some guidance from both the quantitative research and the focus groups has not meant changing course. The electorate has had enough of Morrison, and everyone in politics should take note of this. Maybe it is because of the huge amount of media coverage our politics generates, but the faces of the leaders are very well known and maybe this means that we tire of them at a much faster rate.

There are very few politicians who can stand out to the point they become Hawke-like and for a decade are unbeatable. The new Premier of South Australia is just such a leader. The Liberals in SA will be chasing his tail for years to come. He is young enough to run his state for a decade or so and still think of a federal career. Labor has unearthed a political superstar with unlimited potential.

At a state level, Labor is doing well with Andrews, McGowan and Palaszczuk all having commanding leads in their respective bailiwicks, and Peter Malinauskas can now be added to this already impressive list. The truism of our recent political history is that Labor seems destined to prevail more often than not in state elections and the Coalition wins federally. Albo will be hoping to start a new trend of Labor victories in the upcoming election.

Anthony Albanese listens to Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers addressing the National Press Club in the Great Hall at Parliament House on Tuesday. Picture: Gary Ramage