Scott Morrison hammers home distinctions in rival party policies

Scott Morrison has tried to turn the electoral dial heading into the final week of the election campaign with an 11th hour pitch to the aspirational class and their parents.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Coalition Campaign launch on Sunday. Picture: Jason Edwards

Scott Morrison has tried to turn the electoral dial heading into the final week of the election campaign with an 11th hour pitch to the aspirational class and their parents.

By offering access to superannuation for first-home buyers, and incentives for empty nesters, the Prime Minister has sought to put a big policy announcement at the heart of an ideological contest.

Morrison and his housing minister are attempting to re-establish the Liberal Party on the Menzies principle as the party of homeownership.

It was a concrete articulation of the underlying theme of Morrison’s campaign launch – a narrative of optimism and hope.

And it was a crafted attempt to draw a sharper distinction between it and Labor’s grievance-based approach, its appeal to the disaffected and the mistakes of the Morrison government.

Where Anthony Albanese puts value in the power of government, Morrison portrays himself as a leader seeking to empower the individual.

In a campaign so far lacking in big policy ideas, this is a distinction that until now has been lost to the dominance of personality politics.

Morrison has waited until the last moment to steer the debate back to a fundamental policy difference and a fundamental contest of values.

And some will argue that it should have been released a week ago, if Morrison was hoping to seize back the agenda from a dominant opposition.

But if the electorate is as truly disengaged as both sides of politics claim, then it may have been the smart approach, with voters only now beginning to focus on the reality that in six days they will have to make a choice.

At the heart of Morrison’s final pitch are two fundamental arguments.

He has activated superannuation as the vehicle for a long-running and essential ideological dispute.

Morrison appeals to the aspirational in contrast to a Labor Party wedded to the maintenance of the founding principles of forced retirement savings.

By using housing and home ownership as the policy debate, there are now competing models on offer. Where Albanese wants to leverage the power of the state through government co-ownership, Morrison offers the emancipation of what he claims is “your money”.

Both may have the effect of pushing up house prices.

Morrison at least, and at last, has found a policy that he knows Albanese won’t seek to match.