Scott Morrison’s steady hand pays off as voters show approval

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison works in his office at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

Crisis or no crisis, Scott Morrison in his wildest dreams would and should not have expected to find himself in the electoral position he is now in, a year since his “miracle” election victory.

If anyone had predicted a government to be more popular 12 months into its third term, than it was when it went into it, they would have been belittled as barking mad.

Yet Morrison is heading a Coalition government with greater popular support that would see it increase its majority at an election, and personal approval ratings at record highs for a Liberal leader.

This is all the more remarkable considering the bleak economic outlook and the sobering announcement last week that 600,000 people had just lost their jobs.

But underlying this is also a fundamental realisation that many Australians have likely come to over the past two weeks that underpins this support.

In spite of some early and churlish criticism, Morrison has guided Australia through this crisis in a way that very few leaders have achieved, if any.

And there is a deepening of community consensus that Morrison and the national cabinet have spared the country from the worst ravages of the disease while inoculating the economy against collapse.

The country is not the same one it was six months ago. Morrison is not the same leader, and politics as usual has been replaced with a surprising level of rectitude and transparency from all levels of government that has reset the public debate.

At the same time, Labor finds itself spinning its wheels. While Anthony Albanese still enjoys positive approval ratings, Labor’s reversion to combat politics has fallen flat.

The primary numbers in the latest Newspoll suggest that the Coalition has picked up support from the left and the right. Combined, Labor and the Greens have fallen three points as Pauline Hanson slides into irrelevancy.

These are unprecedented times, which makes meaningful analysis difficult.

The first real test of the Coalition numbers, and Morrison’s personal support, may well come at the Eden-Monaro by-election.

Despite best attempts by the NSW Liberals and Nationals to swing a wrecking ball through the preselection, Morrison could be now slightly more optimistic that the Coalition could rewrite 100 years of history and pick the seat up from Labor.

The result may well answer the question as to whether the record approval ratings for Morrison are defined only by the pandemic and that party politics has little or no bearing in the current numbers.