When Scott Morrison first grew to become Australia’s prime minister in 2018, he was so little recognized that when he went to shake the hand of a soccer fan, the confused man requested: “What’s your name, then?”
After practically 4 years on the helm, Mr. Morrison’s pitch to voters this time round is that he and his conservative coalition are the recognized portions in a world stuffed with financial and geopolitical uncertainty. Australia continues to grapple with its emergence from the pandemic, fallout from the struggle in Ukraine and China’s encroachment within the area.
“It’s a choice between a strong future and an uncertain one. It’s a choice between a government you know and a Labor opposition that you don’t,” he stated in April as he known as the election. “Now is not the time to risk that.”
Mr. Morrison, who received a shock victory within the nation’s final federal election three years in the past, is the one prime minister in 15 years to serve out a full time period. But his tenure hasn’t all the time been easy, with moments which have examined the Australian public’s religion in his management and scandals that rocked his administration.
The greatest and probably most enduring of these moments got here early in his time period, when he and his household jetted off to Hawaii whereas devastating bush fires raged in Australia in late 2019. His ham-handed rationalization throughout a radio interview — “I don’t hold a hose, mate” — grew to become emblematic of what many have criticized as his authorities’s insufficient response and reluctance to take local weather change severely as an element within the catastrophe.
Some of that public belief was recovered together with his administration’s early success curbing the Covid-19 pandemic. Swift border closures and aggressive coverage measures spared Australia the degrees of deaths and hospitalizations different international locations suffered. But the federal government’s delays in procuring vaccines and Mr. Morrison’s remarks that securing jabs was “not a race,” ate away at what confidence had been restored.
In the ultimate days of the marketing campaign, Mr. Morrison acknowledged that his model of management had turned some Australians off, saying he may very well be “a bit of a bulldozer.” But he stated his method had been crucial in recent times, and he promised to vary.
His challenger, Anthony Albanese, stated Mr. Morrison shouldn’t be given one other likelihood: “A bulldozer wrecks things, a bulldozer knocks things over. I’m a builder.”
Mr. Morrison, who’s the son of a police officer and was raised in a beachy suburb of Sydney, is a religious Pentecostal, a primary in largely secular Australian politics. He labored as a advertising govt on tourism campaigns selling Australia earlier than he was elected to Parliament in 2007.
He emerged within the broader nationwide consciousness in 2013 as immigration minister, when he took a hard-line method to imposing Australia’s “Stop the Boats” coverage, geared toward stopping asylum seekers from reaching the nation’s shores. After stints as minister of social providers and treasurer, he grew to become what some have known as the “accidental” prime minister when he was the final one left standing throughout an inner get together revolt.
In 2019, Mr. Morrison, 54, ran for his first full time period as prime minister, portray himself as a relatable Everyman, a suburban dad who loves rugby — “ScoMo,” as he preferred to consult with himself. He appeared as shocked as anybody when his center-right coalition received, calling it a “miracle.”
“It was a successful piece of personal marketing in 2019,” stated Frank Bongiorno, a historical past professor on the Australian National University.
But this time, he can not depend on the private branding. Mr. Morrison has to run on his file, and there’s brewing disillusionment round his authorities’s dealing with of urgent points akin to local weather change, the remedy of ladies and corruption, Mr. Bongiorno stated.
“There is a sense it may be time for change, and that’s reflected in the polling at the moment,” he stated.