Scott Morrison is Australia's first Prime Minister in 15 years to serve full term

Scott Morrison is the first Prime Minister to serve a full term in the last 15 years. In 2007, Australia's second-longest-serving Prime Minister, John Howard, was voted out after almost 12 years in office.

In at least one sense, Scott Morrison is the most successful Australian prime minister in years. He is the first to survive in office from one election to the next since 2007. That year, the government of Australia's second-longest-serving Prime Minister, John Howard, was voted out after a reign of almost 12 years.

Between Howard and Morrison, there have been four prime ministers, including Kevin Rudd who served twice during an extraordinary period of political instability in Australia.

Rudd's second stint ended when voters ousted his center-left Australian Labor Party government in the 2013 election. The other three prime ministers were toppled by their own parties, which panicked amid poor opinion polling. So too was Rudd during his first stint that set the revolving door to the prime minister's office spinning.

Morrison's relative longevity can be explained in part by his conservative Liberal Party tightening the rules that enable them to activate their leader's ejector seat.

But most put his survival for a full three-year term down to the credit Morrison is given for leading his coalition to a narrow victory in the last election in 2019 when Labor was favored to win. Some betting agencies had been so confident of a Labor victory that they had paid out the party's backers before polling day.

Morrison announced on Sunday that the next election will be held on May 21. It's the latest date available to him.

Morrison's coalition is again behind in most opinion polls. But the polls' credibility has not recovered from the shock of the 2019 result and Morrison is now recognized as a masterful campaigner who does not surrender.