After six weeks of campaigning do we have a leader who can rally and inspire the country with their vision and ambition for our future? The answer, sadly, is no. The courage and convictions of the Hawke, Keating and Howard eras seem more distant today than ever.
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Instead, the voters of 2022 have the devil we know and the one we don't. It's an uninviting choice between a nine-year-old government that has run out of ideas and an opposition seemingly afraid that any idea might lose them the election. Given these two shades of grey, little wonder the campaign has been so underwhelming - at times borrowing from the US presidential style of politics and at others resembling little more than a shouty schoolyard personality contest.
But turn down the volume - Scomo and Albo trading talking points and barbs amid a blizzard of gotcha stumbles and smirks - and some distinctions emerge.
The voters of 2022 have the devil we know and the one we don't. It's an uninviting choice between a nine-year-old government that has run out of ideas and an opposition seemingly afraid that any idea might lose them the election.
The Coalition has campaigned strongly on its record in government through the most challenging three years the nation has faced since World War II. Displaying admirable flexibility, it ditched its long-held narrative of being the party of fiscal conservatism to support Australians through the pandemic lockdowns with JobKeeper and other programs. Following the medical advice, closing the borders, instituting a national cabinet, supporting business and, belatedly, securing vaccines all helped the nation navigate the pandemic with fewer deaths and less economic damage than most other countries. And we have emerged with the lowest unemployment rate in decades.
In the face of muscular Chinese intrusion into the Indo-Pacific, the Coalition has stood firm. The Solomons deal has been an embarrassment but there has also been resolve in the call for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 and the forging of a new relationship with the US and UK - the AUKUS alliance. That the nuclear submarine switch put France offside was inevitable. Less so was President Emmanuel Macron's calling the PM a liar, putting Scott Morrison's character in the spotlight, where it has remained throughout the campaign.
Holidaying in Hawaii as the Black Summer bushfire crisis exploded, the infamous "I don't hold a hose, mate" comment, saying the vaccine rollout was not a race, being characterised by some within his own side of politics as being elastic with the truth, his flatfooted handling of the Brittany Higgins affair - all have come back to dog Morrison. That is the devil we know, the one the Coalition wants us to keep at the helm for another three years. It's the devil from which Scott Morrison has in recent days sought to distance himself, acknowledging that he's had to operate like a "bulldozer" but assuring that he's capable of changing gears.
The devil many say they still don't know is Anthony Albanese. On day one of the campaign the Labor leader stumbled with a basic question about the unemployment and cash rates - at a time when working families are struggling to bridge the gap between sluggish wage growth and a rising cost of living. And he's mumbled his way through much of the contest since with an at times unconvincing sales pitch for an agenda only costed on Thursday. For many punters yearning for an alternative they can rally around with passion, Albanese has lacked charisma, confidence and command of the detail, including on Labor's own six-point NDIS plan.
In a few key areas we've had a hint of the ambition for which there is hunger. Labor has committed to a referendum on setting up an Indigenous Voice to Parliament - a "nation-changing moment", Albanese calls it. It has set a 43 per cent reduction target for carbon emissions by 2030, which, after this continent's run of climate-fuelled disasters, is the action Australians want and the certainty business and industry need. There's also the pledge to progress a federal integrity commission, a commitment to have registered nurses in all aged care facilities, $1 billion towards Medicare and access to GP services plus a childcare strategy to boost female workforce participation and in turn the overall productivity of the economy which might finally see wages grow.
These are not quite the bold reform agendas of Hawke or Keating but they reach higher and look further ahead than the Coalition's effective but transactional, just-get-the-job-done mode of management. A case in point: Morrison's eleventh-hour promise of a superannuation-driven home ownership scheme. Allowing first-home buyers to dip into their super will appeal to younger voters locked out of the overheated property market. But not only does this risk pushing house prices even higher, it threatens to erode this generation's retirement savings. Labor's shared equity alternative also carries risk, including for taxpayers funding the government's support, but at least it does not involve cashing in the nest egg. And its early pre-campaign pledge - matched by the Coalition - to expand first home buyer support in regional Australia shows Labor has done its homework on the housing availability and affordability that Infrastructure Australia says is the biggest infrastructure challenge facing the regions.
Perhaps the sharpest distinction between the contenders is the depth of the respective front benches. No matter what we might feel about the party leaders, when we vote we elect a team to govern. While the Coalition ministerial ranks looks depleted through attrition and scandal - with star performer Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in peril in his own seat - Labor's Jim Chalmers, Jason Clare, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher stepped forward when Albanese was forced into isolation by COVID and have presented as competent, engaging and fit for government.
As for the leaders themselves, many Australians are probably still wrestling with one or both of the following questions: Albanese may be a good bloke but is he up to the job? And Morrison may be up to the job but is he a good bloke?
While the blame and opprobrium directed at the PM by his most trenchant critics has at times been unfair and disproportionate, especially in the circumstances of an unprecedented global health and economic crisis, Morrison's default tendency to deflect and dissemble has bred a distrust that he has been unable to dispel.
Labor has its own accountability and transparency issues. Its "small target" campaign has aimed to give Albanese an easier run to The Lodge by avoiding media scrutiny and making Morrison's flaws the focus. But this strategy hasn't prevented gaffes and only deepened the doubts many voters have about Albanese's ability to perform under pressure and take charge of a country that has had six prime ministers since Labor last won office from opposition.
Before the election was called we surveyed our readers on the key issues most likely to decide their vote in 2022. Thousands of readers of mastheads in the ACM regional network were clear that the environment and climate change, health and leadership matter the most. How you vote on Saturday will be a personal decision and, on these three critical issues, some will see merits to both of the major parties seeking to govern. As our reader survey scorecard, published today, shows, there's not much to separate them. On balance, however, there is enough to consider a change of government. After the hardships of the past three years it's time to park the bulldozer and begin building a vision for the future that can unite the country. It's time for a new team and a fresh approach.
Responsibility for this election comment is taken by ACM Editorial Director Rod Quinn of 121 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra.