Anna Caldwell: Scott Morrison banks on sweeteners, surpluses and discipline to win

BUDGET COMMENT: The Government has meticulously carved out prizes for those key demographics it needs help from to return the PM to the Lodge — low- and middle-class workers, young people, women, small business and seniors.

• Federal budget 2019: Winners and losers
• Budget 2019 sets up for May election

There is more than a glimmer of Scott Morrison’s history as one-time Liberal party campaign chief in this crucial pre-election budget.

The Government has meticulously carved out prizes for those key demographics it needs help from to return the PM to the Lodge — low- and middle-class workers, young people, women, small business and seniors.

They are surgical strikes, designed to appeal — a tactical manifesto designed to blunt Bill Shorten’s electoral attack.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Member of the Australian House of Representatives Christopher Pyne listen to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty

MORE:

EDUCATION: BUDGET SPENDS BIG ON SCHOOLS, TRAINING HUBS

INFRASTRUCTURE: $7.3B BOOST FOR NSW ROAD, RAIL PROJECTS

But there is also something bigger at play at the heart of this budget — the message that this government can be trusted with the nation’s economy.

Indeed, no matter where you sit politically, there is no denying that the Coalition has neutralised the economic mess Labor left behind, mopping up the debt crises of Rudd and Gillard.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg speaks to journalists during the 2019 budget lockup at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AAP

MORE:

BUDGET: THE WINNERS AND LOSERS

MIRANDA DEVINE: BUDGET AN EXERCISE IN WOKE

It was no easy journey for the Coalition to get here, having had to overcome the savage backlash over too-deep cuts in the Hockey era and then battling to strike the right balance between economic management and mounting cost of living pressures.

But in what could be a supreme and crushing irony, it could be Shorten who is in power when Australia finally returns to the surplus promised land.

Don’t be mistaken — this is part of the government’s pitch. Morrison and Co will use every day until the election to warn voters Shorten cannot be trusted to follow through on their disciplined, hard-fought economic management.

A Treasury official arranges the bags with the Budget papers during the lockup earlier on Tuesday at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AAP

They will argue that he may well deliver this surplus they have lined up, but he’ll surely spend it all after that.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann was stony-faced when he warned voters yesterday “this is not the time to change direction”. When the conversation is about the economy, this government wins against Labor every time.

And if Scott Morrison is to have any hope at the ballot box in May, they will need to keep the Australian people focused on nothing but this narrative.