In all modesty, MWM had a blinder of a campaign. We ignored the polls and still foresaw Anthony Albanese’s victory. Not Robinson Crusoe there, perhaps, but in the hours before polls opened we threw the hung parliament out the window and said Labor would govern without the need for crossbench support.
We recognised that the nation would not vote for Morrison again, no matter how well drilled his pitch, and could support Albanese, no matter how many gaffes.
We foresaw Frydenberg’s fate as the first treasurer to lose his seat in 90 years. And in doing so we sought to go deeper into the Teal phenomenon than all the ”change you can believe in” hosannas being offered elsewhere, The movement won both our approbation and some dry-eyed scepticism. With every political movement, it’s a case of trust, but verify.
We had some tough love for the Greens and Labor. We wargamed a fourth straight Labor defeat and saw trouble for Kristina Keneally.
We decided to not treat Barnaby Joyce as a caricature, and in doing so, we lamented that the people who represent the toilers in Australia’s agricultural producing regions would no longer sit in the same ministerial room as the people whose playground is Sydney’s harbour and northern beaches, and the magnificent parts of Marvellous Melbourne.
We saw the seats of four of the six living former PMs – Warringah, Wentworth, Bennelong and Griffith, being held by a political adversary. It still might happen. We went out to the fringes of sanity in examining a grand coalition of Coalition and Labor to secure the nation’s energy supply. Not yet, but remember where you read it first.
Readers of MWM since the miracle win of 2019 would be well-acquainted with the catalogue of catastrophes perpetuated by the Morrison government. They would know, too, that we believe a bolder agenda is needed from Labor than the one that was embraced on Saturday.
On Saturday Morrison was the bastard. Now Albanese is the bastard. But we believe in giving every bastard an Aussie fair go.
Mark Sawyer is a journalist with extensive experience in print and digital media in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Australia.