Scott Morrison on a high as Albanese struggles for relevance

Support for Scott Morrison is hardening as the Coalition remains in an election-winning position.

Scott Morrison sits opposite Anthony Albanese during Question Time at the House of Representatives in April. Picture: Gary Ramage

Support for Scott Morrison is hardening as the Coalition ­remains in an election-winning position and Anthony Albanese struggles to find his voice in a postcoronavirus economy.

If it continues, an August or September poll next year will doubtless become a live ­option.

While Morrison would know better than anyone that popularity is a castle built on pillars of sand, nothing that Labor is doing at the moment suggests it will shift in the short term.

With a budget in October, leading into Christmas, the government could feasibly be in campaign mode by February.

The view of Liberal Party strategists is that Labor is misreading the mood at every point.

It is playing to the old paradigm in a very different world while Morrison is rewarded for his handling of the health crisis and the economic response. And he has been ahead of the curve on the politics.

Morrison’s record high ­approval ratings have been ­confirmed over four polls since April 1. The Coalition remains ahead of its election-winning primary vote.

Even the announcement of a recession has done little to dent Morrison’s authority.

Meanwhile Albanese is walking a fine line between irrelevance and overreach but at the same time holding onto a positive net approval rating which his predecessor failed to achieve.

But Labor’s response to the Black Lives Matter protests have exposed once again its structural weakness.

The inability to articulate a position — they would neither back them or condemn them — suggests they don’t know what to do.

Labor remains in fear of inner city Greens but incapable of balancing this against the alienation of everyone else.

Labor failed to get traction with the $60bn miscalculation of the $130bn JobKeeper, as it did with the government’s capitulation on Robodebt.

The criticism of Morrison’s ­approach to China also appears to have gone against the grain with 80 per cent of Australians appearing to have a different view to that of the Opposition Leader.

Labor’s strategy appears to be designed around a platform that will carry its argument if and when the mood finally shifts.

It has laid down markers for where it thinks that it will shift, hoping that it will be poised to capatilise on what it believes will be the government’s inevitable failures.