On the eve of his final speech, Scott Morrison says he wants to be like Gillard when he leaves

Australia’s 30th prime minister will deliver his valedictory speech at noon on Tuesday, nearly 17 years since entering federal parliament and 21 months since the devastating May 2022 election loss in which a swag of seats were lost to Labor, teal and Greens MPs.

Morrison praised Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for unifying the opposition and contrasted the Coalition’s post-election stability with their last period in opposition (2007 to 2009), when Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and then Tony Abbott were leaders in quick succession, but warned the Coalition had to try to win back the teal seats it lost.

“I think Peter’s done a terrific job in maintaining, developing the unity of the team, which frankly has been the case since August of 2018 [when Morrison replaced Turnbull],” he said.

“I think the maths is obvious about that [winning back teal seats]. Certainly to hold government in the majority, but I think the maths of that is quite obvious.”

Sitting in his empty backbencher’s office in Parliament House, he said his government had considered “going forward on nuclear” in 2021 but simply hadn’t had the “bandwidth” at the time.

Morrison was the only Australian prime minister who dealt with Trump and Joe Biden and said, “On the alliance, there was no difference.”

“The commitment to the alliance was strong and reliable with both of them. I think both of them, particularly on our biggest existential threat, which is China, I think Donald Trump was the disrupter in terms of the West’s relationship with China, that was absolutely essential. Had it not been for him, I doubt the world would have woken up to the threat,” he said.

“But in Joe Biden, we had a great consolidator of that position, and AUKUS was a key part of that, as was his leadership of the Quad.”

Insisting he had “great faith in American democracy”, Morrison said a re-elected Trump “doesn’t pose any concerns in terms of the impact on Australia’s national interests”.

Morrison said that during the pandemic, people had urged Gillard to criticise his handling of the pandemic, but “she just refused, and she was supportive … I thought she was very gracious”.

“I don’t think ex-politicians, particularly ex-prime ministers, have to vacate every field, but you’ve had your go in partisan politics in this country. I will always be a Liberal … but the only advice that I provide is private, when sought.”

Morrison’s book, which has a foreword by former US vice president Mike Pence and billed by his publishers not as a political memoir but a “pastoral encouragement”, will be launched in the United States rather than Australia.

“We will do a sort of a pre-launch event here in Australia, obviously. And those plans are coming together now … it’s not a political book. There are political anecdotes in about some rather significant things that happened, not just during my time as prime minister but other times, but also other things throughout my and Jenny’s life,” he said.

Morrison said that he did have a few regrets, but true to form, he did not name them, preferring instead to reflect on what he accomplished. He listed AUKUS, Australia’s response to the pandemic and the mental health agreements forged with the states as his proudest achievements.

Gratitude, he said, was the overwhelming emotion he felt as he left politics. He “absolutely” has another career ahead, he says, though he dismisses the speculation that he would become a pastor in the church.

“The opportunity for me to have done the former [be a pastor] was about, well, 35 years ago, and I write about that in the book, and we contemplated it, but [I] chose a different path. That doesn’t mean I won’t spend and that I don’t hope to spend time moving both around Australia and sharing my faith in Christian churches and in other parts of the world.”