PM Scott Morrison echoed Menzies when he claimed the last Australian election for the “quiet Australians” – the C21 equivalent of Menzies’s “forgotten people”, or Howard’s “battlers”.  

But something happened when the Coronavirus struck.  

First, we had a government stimulus package that dwarfed Kevin Rudd’s “Go hard, go households” post GFC pump prime by hundreds of percent. 

Australia is spending perhaps 10% of GDP propping-up and protecting individuals and businesses from the effects of the virus – much more than just about anywhere else in the world.