Budget needs to work politically, as well as economically

MALCOLM Turnbull and Scott Morrison will tell us their Budget is about helping the economy. It really has another purpose.

Scott Morrison will hand down the Budget tonight. Picture: Rod McGuirk / AP

Tonight’s Budget will be a multi-billion dollar repair kit aimed at fixing the tattered political standing of the Turnbull government.

The political patch-up began this morning when Treasurer Scott Morrison said the Government had listened to voters.

The repair job will be in addition to the economic task of bolstering growth and creating jobs through strategic infrastructure investments.

A key revelation will be how shrinking revenue will be stretched to cover significant spending programs, such as the extra $18.6 billion for schools, and whether the promise of a 2021 surplus can be met.

It will also be a Budget of confession with the tacit admission the 2014 economic statement of then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was damaging and unfair.

There will be no mention of “lifters and leaners” or the end of the Age of Entitlement, both promoted by former Treasurer Joe Hockey.

Scott Morrison is stressing the positives and the prospect of economic sunshine, an essential message to voters whose living expenses have risen but their wage growth has stalled.

The political repair will see particular attention to health and education where many voters believe Labor has superior policies.

Medicare was a major issue in last year’s election, and it seems Malcolm Turnbull wants to sure up voters who prioritise healthcare. Picture: Jono Searle

In last year’s election the Labor claim Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wanted to privatise Medicare was not decisive in itself. But it highlighted health as an issue and voters marked the Government down on policy.

Some 24 per cent of voters rated health (including Medicare) their top issue, recently released analysis by the authoritative Australian Election Studies group has found.

That compared to 19 per cent in the 2013 election.

The next highly rated issue was economic management at 20 per cent.

This Budget will unfreeze at least part of the Medicare rebate. The halt to indexation of the rebate has increased charges by many GPs and raised the prospect of reduced bulk billing.

The third most important issue for voters last year was education and the Government has offered a reform of university funding to avoid the prospect of fee deregulation proposed in 2014, and get efficiencies from the sector.

It has also increased funding to schools to tidy up the many deals Labor had to sign to get its Gonski program through.

However, the Prime Minister is facing a savage backlash from the Catholic school system which says it will have to increase fees despite a significant jump in funding.

Tony Abbott and front bencher Zed Seselja have joined the protests of the Catholic education sector, creating another internal row Mr Turnbull will have deal with.

The Government is hoping an optimistic Budget with due attention to hard working families will lift its stocks.

“We understand that while Australia has grown ahead of the large advanced economies in all the world … that not all Australians have felt the experience of that growth personally,” said Mr Morrison today.

“Australians have been making big sacrifices to ensure that we’ve achieved the growth that we’ve had, and I want to tell them that it’s been worth it.

Originally published as Budget needs to work politically, as well as economically