Australia now remembers Scott Morrison can campaign. But will voters forget the past three years? | Katharine Murphy

On day one.

Morrison is better than John Howard, who was diabolically clever, but with an overhang of social awkwardness. Better than Julia Gillard, who struggled to be seen or heard in a misogynistic melange. Better than Malcolm Turnbull, who, in his exciting times, lacked a visage of non-threatening ordinariness. So better than them.

Abbott, who only knew how to wreck, had no visible talent for the prime ministership at all. Given how atrocious he was, it was astonishing he lasted as long as he did. The progressive technocrat Rudd had a mind that never stopped racing. He went at everything like he was shot out of a cannon. This was the crux of his problem. It led to his removal from the top job, effectively on a backroom impulse.

The moral of these musings is simple.

Some of our best political campaigners have been either deficient (Abbott), unmanageably chaotic (Rudd) or both obdurate and oddly directionless (Morrison). Yet voters learn this once the campaign ends.

As these deficiencies are consequential, this feels like a trend we should have a close look at.

Albanese contributed by failing to stick the dismount from the parliamentary theatre to the hellscape of the hustings. This week will have reminded the Labor leader that the hustings are no place for extemporising humans, and campaigns are no country for the messy ebbs and flows, concentration lapses or confidence dips that humans tend to exhibit.

This story of Alan Tudge, a minister both in and out of the cabinet, and the mystery of the $500,000-plus payout from taxpayers to the former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller, is absolutely extraordinary. Want details about any of that? Think anyone in the government might believe themselves accountable? Are you mad? Talk to the hand. Next question.

I normally consider comparisons between Morrison and Donald Trump to be hyperbolic given Morrison still orienteers along a reality plane. But to ditch an important integrity pledge in plain sight, and blame everybody else, is Trumpian-level chutzpah.

But if Morrison has his way, it will be nothing.

What Morrison told voters this week, in very clear terms, was that he believes in the clash of rights between the political class and the public, the political class should win. Politicians have more of a right to safeguard their reputations than the public has to a strong anti-corruption cop on the beat keeping close watch on the most powerful people in the country.