The 2019 Australian Election: Quiet Australians, Daggy Dads and Climate Change
| Author | Mark Bennister,Simon Obendorf |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905819871843 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
SEPTEMBER 2019 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 25
In 1993, the Australian Labor Party won
an unexpected fth term of oce. The
election was billed as ‘unlosable’ for the
opposition Liberal-National Coalition under
John Hewson. Paul Keating’s Labor had been
languishing in the polls for a full year. In victory,
the incumbent prime minister celebrated the
‘sweetest victory of all’.
Over a quarter of a century later the parallels
were obvious. This time the opposition Labor
party led by Bill Shorten went into the general
election having led the polls for 56 consecutive
weeks. But on May 18, Liberal and National
Coalition Prime Minister Scott Morrison deed
polls and predictions to win. Morrison hailed
‘quiet Australians’ for delivering his ‘miracle’ win.
Labor had lost supposedly ‘unlosable’
elections from opposition before. In 2004
Mark Latham with a bold and detailed policy
platform in opposition failed to prevent John
Howard’s third successive victory. So why did
the governing Coalition win their surprise
victory in 2019?
The state of play
The Coalition’s poor poll showing ahead of the
election was blamed on a series of scandals
and a chaotic leadership ‘spill’. Morrison had
ousted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in
August 2018. Turnbull had himself overthrown
The 2019 Australian Election:
Quiet Australians, Daggy
Dads and Climate Change
The opposition Labor party was widely expected to emerge v ictorious
in Australia’s general election. But a combination of economic fears,
misinformation and a growing urban-rural divide delivered a narrow
win for the ruling Coalition, as Mark Bennister and Simon Obendorf
report.
Tony Abbott in 2015 and then scraped a win in
the 2016 election. Such leadership churn prior
to elections is common in Australian politics,
though it used to be a Labor phenomenon.
For Morrison, it had the advantage of pitting
a relatively new candidate for the governing
party against a Labor leader in Shorten
who was well known – but unpopular – in
opposition. Morrison could be both the change
and continuity leader. Though polling showed
Labor consistently ahead, Shorten trailed
behind Morrison as preferred prime minister.
Chaos had not been conned to leadership
battles in the Liberal party. A series of Turnbull
government ministers were forced to resign
when it emerged that several parliamentarians
in both Houses were dual nationals and thus
ineligible to sit in parliament under section
44 of Australia’s Constitution. The scandal also
caught up Labor parliamentarians and smaller-
party Senators. Seven byelections occurred for
the lower House of Representatives.
© Press Association
Political Insight SEPT2019.indd 25 01/08/2019 14:10
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