Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Erik Jensen, Quarterly Essay/Black Inc., $22.99.
Walkley Award-winner Jensen aptly covers the tactics and sentiments of an election that’s been decided.
“Arthur Sinodinos says the election is a crapshoot. He’s in a car park in Nowra, waiting for Morrison. ‘The momentum has been with us at different times, especially in Queensland,’ he says. ‘Central Queensland, even the outer suburbs of Brisbane. It’s a narrow pathway to victory, with the odds going the other way. But it ain’t over until it’s over.’ Despite everything, Arthur Sinodinos has an honest face. He does not look confident.”
It’s coming up to two months since Australia elected its 46th Parliament. Its outcome was contrary to many opinion polls. Quarterly Essay #74 elaborates on how Prime Minister Scott Morrison won and former Leader of the Australian Labor Party Bill Shorten lost.
Award-winning biographer and journalist Erik Jensen had a box seat on the Morrison campaign trail and he’s penned his observations for QE. It was Morrison who pulled off an extraordinary victory. He even described it as a “miracle”.
This is a fresh, enlightening look at the denotation of the 2019 election. Jenson hones in on the unpredictability that drove Shorten and the inevitability that helped Morrison win. It considers how each man contemplates, contests and eases the national character.
Who are Morrison’s ‘quiet Australians’? What did Shorten Labor fail to see? Will fear always trump hope in politics? The Prosperity Gospel sheds new light on the politics of a divided nation.
