Stoking fear and hatred held the Coalition in power – finally Australia had enough

Scott Morrison was the man at the front door with a suitcase of brushes. Defying Australia took more skills than he possessed. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Preventing the future became the great cause of Coalition politics in this country under Tony Abbott. Social change? Stop it in its tracks. Climate change? Let coal burn. Tax reform? Keep propping up the prosperous.

So we have lived with logjam. Many see this as a failure of politics. They’re wrong. It was the triumph of a political mission for which there was never more than scant popular support.