Albanese, the scrappy contender, refuses to duck or weave

Yet the way the Labor leader handles the media is one of the talking points of the campaign. The way Morrison is responding to questions matters, too. With the Reserve Bank lifting interest rates in the middle of the campaign, the prime minister waffled his way through press conferences this week in a sign he was feeling the pressure from the shift in the economy and the shift in the polls.

All of this is part of the choice on May 21. Why? Because the unspoken question at every press conference, whether Morrison or Albanese is speaking, is the one being asked by voters watching at home: is this man up to the job?

This is a tame campaign compared with recent elections. It is cautious and micro-managed on both sides. There are none of the morning walks John Howard did on most days of his campaigns, when you never knew what might happen. In the early days of the 2007 campaign, for instance, Howard was walking with the press pack through Brisbane’s botanic gardens when a young woman came jogging in the other direction. It looked like a young voter was going to give the four-term prime minister a piece of her mind. She gave him a hug instead.

The leaders’ debate between Prime Minister John Howard and then Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd before the 2007 election. Credit:Andrew Taylor

Later, in the same campaign, Howard visited a Brisbane hospital where a patient cried on his shoulder in the cafeteria. Kevin Rudd, meanwhile, fought that campaign with visits to shopping malls where locals could and did come up to him to say whatever was on their minds. Every day involved a risk because every day involved an encounter with a real voter.

Those moments are rare in 2022 and not just because COVID and personal security have imposed constraints on both sides. Caution rules inside the Labor and Liberal campaign headquarters because both sides want their leaders to meet people who have already been vetted rather than running the gauntlet with the public. Morrison walked along the Glenelg beachfront in Adelaide on Wednesday and Albanese spoke to shoppers in a Mount Waverley cafe in Melbourne the same day, but they only met a handful of voters each.

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In other words, both sides calculate that it is not worth the risk of being heckled by the unhappy or hounded by the unhinged. Unfortunately, the anger from the anti-vaxxers means both sides have to be on guard against violence. The daily press conference becomes even more important.

But, as they say, a politician complaining about the media is like a sailor complaining about the weather.

Albanese is certainly not looking like the front runner in this election. Nothing in his manner suggests he thinks he has this in the bag. He is still the challenger in this contest, the scrappy fighter against the smooth incumbent.

Yet the polls suggest the Albanese approach is working. He has narrowed the gap with Morrison as preferred prime minister; at the same time he has widened the contrast in their daily appearances. Morrison can be commanding, brusque and arrogant with the media and then ham it up for the cameras in a hair salon. Albanese can fumble his lines but consciously avoids stunts: he met trainee chefs without helping them to make apple tarts and inspected an electric truck without hopping in the driver’s seat.

He is, after all, running as the anti-Morrison. No polish, no stunts. One observer with long experience and no Labor history made a key point on Thursday. “He’s authentic.”

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Morrison is running a more hectic media schedule than Albanese. With public polls telling the Coalition it is in strife, the strategists respond as if the solution is more Morrison. But what if it is not? What if the prime minister’s daily events only remind voters of what they do not like? While the insiders think viewers see the prime minister, the viewers might only see Scotty from marketing.

A deeper look at the Labor game plan suggests Albanese and his team believe their approach is working. Albanese does not feel the need to visit obvious target seats. He is yet to visit Boothby, the Adelaide seat that Labor people think will fall their way. He lands in most electorates with a light touch. In the NSW Central Coast seat of Robertson, for instance, he made a brief visit and met very few locals.

If Labor loses, the grief will never end and the blame will fall on those who thought this sedate strategy would be good enough in such a tight contest.

Right now, however, Albanese has the cautious pace of the contender who thinks he will keep his lead if he keeps his calm.

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