The quiet Australians spoke, and they said ‘enough’ - Sydney Morning Herald

Anthony Albanese bet everything on a Scott Morrison failure and his bet has paid off handsomely.

By surrendering all traditional Liberal values, he has cost the Liberal Party its bedrock support base.

The Liberal leader became so poisonous to traditional Liberal voters that he dared not show his face in traditional Liberal heartland.

The Liberals have long been a “broad church” of conservatives and liberals, but Morrison was a self-described pragmatist.

They are the repository of traditional Liberal values of aspiration, financial prudence and integrity, but with the 21st-century priority of climate action.

If the Liberals couldn’t win with Liberals, Morrison’s grand plan was to turn the party into a right-wing populist party, with more in common with Barnaby Joyce than Robert Menzies.

So it was only fitting that the seat once held by the Liberals’ founder should turn against the party of Morrison and Joyce.

Morrison anticipated losing heartland Liberal seats, so he needed to taking working class and middle class outer-suburban seats from Labor.

By presiding over a fast-rising cost of living and higher interest rates, Morrison delivered the final insult to people on low and middle incomes.

Without the traditional Liberals, without any values and without the record of competence needed to win over the marginals, he took the Coalition into oblivion.

And while Scott Morrison congratulated himself in his concession speech for leaving Australia’s Defence Force strong, they are, in fact, woefully under-prepared and under-equipped for the confrontation to come.