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drillvoice's review
1.0
Look, Erik Jensen had a tough job. He probably thought Labor was going to win, so it would have been tricky to write an insightful piece, probably with little time, about why they didn't. To some extent it would have been dishonest.
So, instead, Jensen has just recounted the campaign. Really, if you paid any attention during the election campaign, you're not going to learn anything new. Yes, he does add some detail due to his first-hand observation. But these details don't serve to illuminate or represent anything new. It's just colouring in. All the classic tropes about Shorten being disingenuous and Morrison being 'dad next door' are there.
I haven't been too impressed with the essays I've read recently but this one really is a hard fail.
So, instead, Jensen has just recounted the campaign. Really, if you paid any attention during the election campaign, you're not going to learn anything new. Yes, he does add some detail due to his first-hand observation. But these details don't serve to illuminate or represent anything new. It's just colouring in. All the classic tropes about Shorten being disingenuous and Morrison being 'dad next door' are there.
I haven't been too impressed with the essays I've read recently but this one really is a hard fail.
nabilhamzaki's review
4.0
"Morrison’s Australia is humble and the people in it are humble. That is the word he uses. Their aspirations are decent, honest, simple. They are nothing to sneer at. They are quiet, hard-working people. They are quietly getting on with life. The repetitions do not matter: the words all mean the same thing. These people are forgiven greed because what they want is not so much. Work entitles reward. Morrison fuses prosperity with virtue. He fuses himself to Howard and then to Menzies. The only glimpse of a future is in the retirement for which you are already saving.
The great truth of Bill Shorten is that he doesn’t know himself. He hasn’t settled his character. In that way, he is like the country: ill at ease and incomplete. It is not just what he hides – the ruthlessness, the bastardry: it’s that there are parts of him he has never found. Had he been prime minister, he would have governed from insecurity for an insecure nation. He would have built consensus because that is the only real way to answer uncertainty. As it is, Australia has found comfort once again in a hardman who says everything is simple and some of you will be okay."
The great truth of Bill Shorten is that he doesn’t know himself. He hasn’t settled his character. In that way, he is like the country: ill at ease and incomplete. It is not just what he hides – the ruthlessness, the bastardry: it’s that there are parts of him he has never found. Had he been prime minister, he would have governed from insecurity for an insecure nation. He would have built consensus because that is the only real way to answer uncertainty. As it is, Australia has found comfort once again in a hardman who says everything is simple and some of you will be okay."
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