Congratulations to new SA Premier Peter Malinauskas on Labor’s win in the state’s election last weekend. Liberal Steven Marshall had done all the right things in running the state efficiently and leaving it better off than when he started and so deserved to win but didn’t. There were few points of difference between the parties and Malinauskas had charisma and was gracious in his victory speech. His reference to the Liberals as not his enemy but his opponents was a welcome bit of statesmanship.

The Morrison government has been competent, did a fundamentally good job during Covid, has performed better than nearly any other country in standing up to China, and has made some excellent decisions in defence – AUKUS and the nuclear subs spring to mind. Our economy is going gangbusters yet the federal government looks like losing. Why?

Morrison needs a few points of difference: 

1. He shot himself in the foot by agreeing to Net Zero by 2050 at Glasgow. There was no need for it. He could have gone to Glasgow, told those assembled that Australia had the second-best record in the world of actually reducing its emissions and had a go at the Western Europeans for getting rid of their base load power before they could have a reliable supply 24/7 of renewables and, at the same time, becoming overly dependent on Russian gas and oil thus paying for Putin’s war machine. Had he done so, he would now have been considered a sage in the light of what’s happened in Ukraine. Energy security must be our priority, because without it (as the Western Europeans found out), we will be unable to stand up to despots. Morrison can salvage something from Glasgow by promising to remove all legal constraints on going nuclear. That will make the ALP left and the Greens apoplectic!

2. He can attack wokeness in our institutions, especially in education and the draft national curriculum. That is due to be passed by all education ministers in April. The Commonwealth should refuse to do so unless all the politically correct but seriously bad educational elements of the draft are removed. A big fight will develop with Labor and the Greens and the Mr and Mrs Cabramattas and Mr and Mrs Charters Towers of this world will come back to the Coalition in droves.

3. Finally, although Anthony Albanese has cleverly accepted nearly all of the government’s defence initiatives, Morrison needs to announce and deliver an immediate substantial increase in tangible assets that beef up our woeful strike capacity. Like procuring 2000 tomahawk advanced cruise missiles (cost $2 million each) and 1000 Turkish drones ($1 million each) that are doing such a great job destroying Putin’s tanks in Ukraine. I doubt if the left of the ALP and the Greens (who want to destroy our defence force by only spending 1% of GDP ) will be able to stay silent. How can the public trust the ALP on having a strong defence force when their Green partners in the Senate will try to stop any strong defence initiatives an incoming Labor government may try to embark on?

Food for thought, ScoMo.

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Canberra Daily.

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