The prime minister was momentarily bewildered, as security grabbed the woman and ushered her outside the hall.

But his next response was telling.

He noticed a lady had been knocked to the ground, helped her up and gave her a hug.

Left to settle in voters' consciousness, it could have been a defining moment in Morrison showing his 'human' side.

But, like most of the Liberal campaign, it turned sharply political very quickly.

Within minutes, Morrison was taking to Twitter to blame "farm-invading idiots" and "militant unionists".

It was a reminder of the Morrison known to voters - the Liberal headkicker who "stopped the boats".

It also showed the 51-year-old father-of-two is a complex character.

Morrison ran Tourism Australia before a successful stint as state director of the NSW Liberal Party.

He was elected to federal parliament in 2007 for the NSW seat of Cook.

After the defeat of the Labor government in 2013, Morrison rose to prominence by spearheading Operation Sovereign Borders as immigration minister to Tony Abbott.

His hardline stance toward asylum seekers bewildered some observers, given his devout Christian beliefs.

But he professed a deep belief in the righteousness of crushing the evil people-smuggling trade and preserving the safety of those on board rickety boats.

During a nine-month stint as social services minister, Morrison was also forced to sell the Abbott government's deeply unpopular 2014 budget, which was laced with a cocktail of deep welfare cuts.

However, Morrison was more pragmatic in the role of treasurer, performing back-flips on a range of unpopular government policies.

Immensely unpopular measures including a Medicare levy hike, superannuation changes and big business tax cuts were each eventually cast aside like water off a duck's back.

Just days before taking the Liberal leadership in August last year, Morrison stood in the prime minister's courtyard and was asked to rule out having any leadership ambitions.

"This is my leader and I'm ambitious for him," he told reporters, throwing his arm around Turnbull with a grin.

In reality, he has always held aspirations to lead the Liberal Party, despite being largely unknown by ordinary voters.

He saw off Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for the leadership, having become a "consensus candidate" who many colleagues hoped would bridge a divide between the party's warring moderate and conservative wings.

He split the vote of the party's right faction and scored the so-called "Anyone but Dutton" vote from some on the left.

However since that time he's sought to bring the Liberal tribes together.

A recent example was the revamp of the party's climate policy, which received strong backing from moderates but also kudos from conservatives when he held out hope of a coal-fired power station in north Queensland.

He's spent months neutralising some key trouble spots for the coalition and building his profile as the nation's leader.

In September he announced a royal commission into problems in the aged care sector, while also striking a peace deal with Catholic and independent schools.

A month later he delivered a much-awaited national apology to survivors of institutional child sex abuse.

However, he's been unable to make the polls move into positive territory for the government.

Along with coalition colleagues, Morrison was breathing a sigh of relief when Gladys Berejiklian won the March 23 NSW election.

The federal election campaign for Morrison has been largely about erasing the chaos of the past six years from voters' memory, while emphasising the coalition's economic management.

If Morrison can pull off an unlikely win, he will be marked up as a Liberal legend.

Australian Associated Press