Analysis: Scott Morrison seeks forgiveness for his flaws, three more years in power

Scott Morrison launched the Coalition's 2019 election campaign as a relative unknown to the average voter.

This time voters know him and don't appear to like him. He's acknowledged it, even apologised for it.

But Mr Morrison has not spent the past 72 hours apologising for the image he crafted three years ago; that of a baseball-cap wearing, "How good is Australia"-boasting, Cronulla Sharks-supporting man of faith and family.

Rather, he's admitting to a set of character traits which have emerged since; the qualities which led him to describing himself as a "bulldozer" and promising to be more empathetic.

The Prime Minister's 11th hour pledge to do and be better set the backdrop for Sunday's campaign launch at Brisbane's Convention & Exhibition Centre, the final set-piece event before polling day on May 21.

Mr Morrison is banking on swinging voters forgiving his flaws and missteps, handing him credit for "saving" Australia from the worst of COVID-19 and being fearful of life under Labor.

But his opponents won't allow those flaws and missteps to be easily forgotten or forgiven.

Unionists made that clear as they converged at the convention centre's front entrance just before midday on Sunday, shouting anti-Morrison slogans and holding signs which read "Don't Let Him Fail Us Again".

There were placards about climate action and aged care, just two of the areas the government has failed on in the eyes of its critics.

One protester, wearing a novelty-sized head bearing something approaching Morrison's resemblance, strummed a Ukulele as he reclined on a deck chair.

Mr Morrison hadn't yet taken that ill-fated trip to Honolulu at the time of the 2019 campaign launch.

He hadn't made many major missteps at all in the months after emerging from the rubble of the Malcolm Turnbull coup with the nation's top job.

Yet for all that has transpired since, Mr Morrison's message to undecided voters in 2022 is much the same as it was in 2019.

On Sunday, he returned to the central theme of his 2019 speech; the "promise of Australia" and the idea that "if you have a go you'll get a go".

Mr Morrison said in the face of fires, floods, cyclones and COVID-19, his government had managed to preserve the promise of Australia.

This is one thing he doesn't want voters to forget.

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As much as Mr Morrison wants to move beyond the pandemic, he's made a calculation that he can't explain his government's successes - and justify his own behaviour - without reminding Australians of those perilous first few months of 2020.

"As a leader, this was a time for strength. It was a time for pushing through," he told an audience which included former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott.

"I had one focus as your Prime Minister, save the country. We did."

An extended version of the "Why I love Australia" advertisement, which the Prime Minister released on the night before calling the election, was played for the first time at the launch.

This version featured interviews with Jenny Morrison and a host of ministers, each describing an aspect of Mr Morrison's character which only those closest to him to get to see.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton spoke of his colleague's "complete calmness" in high-stake meetings.

Mrs Morrison spoke of her husband's capacity to process information quickly. Jane Hume described how he "stepped up". This is the real Scott Morrison.

Three years after using a Coalition election campaign launch to introduce himself to the nation, Scott Morrison is trying to do so again.

We'll find out what Australians make of it in six days' time.