The jobs and skills summit is theatre — but the script has changed

The biggest contrast between the Albanese government and the Morrison government is that the former believes in active governing and using power to effect change, while the latter believed only in the performance of government and using power to stifle change.

But so far Labor has proved adept at the performance as well.

For Morrison, true to his marketing roots, government was only ever about the next media release, the next announcement, the next press conference. Press gallery journalists marvelled at what a great campaigner he was, seemingly unaware that not merely was he a very limited campaigner — relying on culture war bullshit and demonising his opponents’ policies — but that that was all he was. The campaign, the performance, the media conference was government for Morrison.