Whether or not the federal Budget is lacklustre, it just needs to take the shine off Labor’s attacks

IT doesn’t really matter if next week’s Federal Budget is lacklustre, it just needs to take the shine off Labor’s attacks, writes Tory Shepherd.

• The five questions Scott Morrison’s Federal Budget should answer
• Treasurer Scott Morrison to tighten government spending
• Editorial: Selling us Gonski 2.0 is PM’s big test
• David Gonski hired to conduct new education review

IT doesn’t really matter if next week’s Budget is lacklustre. It just needs to take the shine off Labor’s attacks.

The Government, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull himself, is still cradling a kernel of bitterness over the Opposition’s ‘MediScare’ campaign, which they blame for the loss of seats at the election.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his team were brutal and effective, painting the Coalition as the party that would privatise healthcare. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t true; voters believed it.

This week the Government dealt with education; Education Minister Simon Birmingham steered a careful path through university reforms; students will pay a bit more, but it was barely enough to get a handful of protesters agitating.

He unveiled in glossy, detailed, glory the Gonski 2.0 plan. Including stealing David Gonski himself. The man Labor hired to review schools funding policy is now the Coalition’s man.

Health is the other portfolio the Government needs to get right if they’re to scrub at the stain of the 2014 Budget.

The Turnbull Government has enlisted David Gonski to help spruik its Gonski 2.0 plan.

That Budget revealed, among other things, what amounted to $80 billion in cuts for health and education.

The Government naturally argued that Labor had promised all that cash but would never have delivered it; but that didn’t help. The cuts were gift-wrapped for the Opposition, who liked nothing better than campaigning on health and education.

There is solid speculation that, having ticked off education changes, the Government will turn its attention to health. Specifically, to thaw the freeze on rebates for GP visits. That will give the right message and might keep the powerful doctors’ lobby at bay.

The Government needs to ensure the community understands that Medicare is not under attack.

Which makes it odd and unfortunate that Mr Turnbull appeared to side with US President Donald Trump when it comes to healthcare.

On Friday, Mr Trump had to hustle to get from Washington — where he was busy trying to repeal Obamacare — to New York — where he was meeting Mr Turnbull.

Obamacare is not unlike our own Medicare. What Mr Trump wants to replace it with is meagre by comparison; as many as 24 million Americans will be left without coverage. It is generally seen as a boon for the rich and a bust for the poor.

Mr Trump said to Mr Turnbull: “Right now Obamacare is failing. I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do,” Trump continued. “We’re going to have great health care very soon.”

Mr Turnbull, for his part, congratulated Mr Trump on getting the House on board to repeal Obamacare.

“It’s great,” he said.

Labor leapt on that comment with unseemly haste.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is sure to leap at the chance to criticise any failings in the Budget.

Opposition health and Medicare spokeswoman Catherine King swiftly put out a press release accusing Mr Turnbull of lavishing praise on a policy that cuts universal healthcare.

If you watch the exchange, it appears Mr Turnbull was congratulating Mr Trump just on getting the legislation through, as opposed to its substance. But as with MediScare 2.0, the facts are near irrelevant. It will give Labor material.

Whether it actually gives them any traction is up to the Budget. At its core, the Government needs people to see its economic blueprint as fair.

Treasurer Scott Morrison will talk about the company tax cuts, and he’ll try to shift the focus from the actual deficit to good debt versus bad debt.

There’ll be good news on infrastructure, some news on housing and probably some talking up of the enormous Defence spend.

But he’s also likely to ditch the $13 billion in so-called zombie measures that will never pass — meaning the end to ‘unfair’ relics from 2014.

Voters consistently rank health and education as critical issues. If the Government can nail both, it will not only dullen Labor’s response, it might even start getting a bit of lustre for itself.

Originally published as Whether or not the federal Budget is lacklustre, it just needs to take the shine off Labor’s attacks