Scott Morrison at full steam as Anthony Albanese a casualty of Daniel Andrew’s train wreck

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Anthony Albanese in Melbourne. Picture: Kym Smith

Universal support for Scott Morrison’s unassailable leadership is now beyond question.

He maintains the unprecedented backing of an electorate that has put him ahead of politics.

But, while traditional and tribal party loyalties may have been put aside when it comes to judgments about the Prime Minister, a nexus still exists for the major parties.

The easy answer to a surge in support for the federal Coalition would suggest Morrison’s popularity has finally transferred to party support.

Morrison is being rewarded by voters, across the party-political divide, for three fundamental reasons.

He has been consistent in his approach to the crisis from the outset. Stability, reassurance and pragmatism have underpinned the image of a Prime Minister in command of a crisis.

He gets flak from the right for over reacting to a “corona-conspiracy” and accused by the left of sacrificing lives to the needs of the economy. The majority are looking for sanity and reason, and are finding it in Morrison.

More importantly, Morrison locked away the political armoury and engaged with the states and territories in constructive dialogue.

He has resisted the temptation to capitalise on any perceived failures of the premiers and he has maintained discipline among his colleagues to do the same.

The lift in support for the Liberal Party would appear on the surface to be a result of the lag effect of a popular leader and the party he leads.

It is just as likely that Daniel Andrews is responsible.

The Victorian Premier is now the exemplar of a new political paradigm that has become a blessing and a curse for the premiers.

Andrews is the most prominent Labor leader in the country, more significant than Anthony Albanese, and only two months ago his approval ratings were stratospheric; higher than Morrison’s.

The crisis, which inspired the national cabinet, has elevated the premiers to a national platform.

Just as they have benefited electorally, so too will they be punished.

It could be argued that the suppression of the federal Coalition vote, despite a popular leader, was partly a result of the Andrews factor.

It is a state where the federal Coalition has consistently underperformed.

We may now be witnessing a reversal of fortune amid the debacle that has become Victoria in the past three weeks.

And the person who is suffering the most is Anthony Albanese.

Albanese is already under pressure on a number of fronts. The pot shots he and his shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, have been taking have clearly failed to take the sheen off Morrison.

The Labor leader is again under pressure from the “Otis” group over the party’s climate change position, which still remains unclear.

If the stronger support for the Coalition federally is a result of Andrews’ disaster, Albanese should be worried.

If it is a general shift back to the Coalition more broadly, Albanese should be worried.