Bill Shorten threatened our hip pocket – or at least the one we aspire to have – so he was punished too. And maybe he was punished because the Australian people never much warmed to him. He has resigned as Leader, though he says he will keep going until the ALP chooses a new leader. Maybe it will be one a little more inspirational than Bill Shorten.

The Coalition ran a cynical, deceptive and negative campaign. They labelled every one of Shorten’s initiatives a new tax. The catchphrase “The Bill you cannot afford” was powerful and effective. It may have been the last thing many voters thought of before they entered the polling booth. Labor can’t really complain. The template was Paul Keating’s anti-GST message before the 1993 Election — the unlosable election that John Hewson lost.

Keating lost the subsequent election in a landslide. Which heralded a decade of Howard conservative rule — a divisive decade from which Australia has, clearly, still not recovered.

A government can win one election too many. Three years of Scott Morrison at the helm might just be enough to keep the liars and the cheats out of power for a decade.

We can only be optimistic. It is all we can do right now. The alternative is unthinkable.

via Kill Bill 4: Suffering under ScoMo