Budget 2017: Today’s front pages

Once again, Australia’s cartoonists did not disappoint with the Budget 2017 newspaper front pages.

How the papers reported this year’s Budget

It is that time of year when Australia’s cartoonists are let loose on the front pages, going to town on Scott Morrison’s second federal budget, from an outback theme back to the 1980s.

• Live coverage: Budget reaction

The Australian led with ScoMo steals Labor tax dream, and an Eric Lobbecke-penned Scott Morrison peering into the mirror only to see Wayne Swan looking back at him.

What they said:

Peta Credlin:

When they come to write the history of conservative governments in this country, the 2017-18 budget will be a defining moment.

Last night, the Howard-Costello era ended.

In its place, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison delivered a budget that owes more to the ghost of Labor leaders past than it does to Liberal fundamentals of debt reduction, prudent spending, lower taxes and smaller ­government.

Dennis Shanahan:

This budget is about a reversal of political fortune.

Going into budget Malcolm Turnbull was under pressure to change and perform; coming out of it, Bill Shorten is the leader under pressure.

Labor has lost its clothes to the Coalition and risks being exposed by cold, hard examination.

After the searing election campaign experience of almost losing government to a relentless Opposition Leader, the Prime Minister has finally reacted positively and politically.

Since the 2014 budget Shorten has exploited populism and distortion to obstruct the Coalition’s economic agenda and keep the ALP ahead in the polls under the banner of “fairness”.

Labor has been prepared to oppose almost anything in the Senate and build a reservoir of public grievance.

The Coalition was accused of not wanting to fund the NDIS, of failing schools under the Gonski model, not changing negative gearing and protecting the big banks. Turnbull’s political response was slow and confused, as his leadership drifted into grave risk.

If this budget fails he and Scott Morrison are in deep trouble. But this budget demonstrates a recognition of that threat and a strategic shift to force Shorten to adapt and readjust.

Timeline: How The Australian has reported the Federal Budget over the years

The Daily Telegraph channelled their inner Huey Lewis with a mocked up Morrison insisting ‘tough love you’ve had your share. Time to lighten up and enjoy budget repair.

What they said:

Miranda Devine: The 2014 budget was the rampaging Frankenstein’s monster which eventually wrecked theAbbott leadership and came close to killing off the Turnbull government at the last election.

Yesterday’s budget set about slaying the zombie spawn of 2014 once and for all.

It’s an admission that the Coalition has given up on the sort of fiscal asceticism that was supposed to be Liberal DNA, and instead has embraced the reality of a cynical public frightened by monsters, less willing than ever to give up gold-plated public services or trust that governments know what they’re doing.

The Courier Mail has Morrison and Malcolm Tuinbull in the outback with a slab of beer and an inflatable croc promising to ‘make ‘Straya great again’.

And ‘The Advertiser’ has salesman Morrison selling his ‘Better Times Tonic’.

The Herald Sun sticks with the beer theme, with a tattooed Morrison knocking back a can of Labor Lite.

What they said:

“The 2017-18 Budget is not an election budget, at least not in chronological terms. But in the current fractious era of Australian politics, where elected prime ministers are more in danger from their own parties than their opposition, every budget is an election budget.

Any budget that misinterprets the public mood risks destabilising a government and rousing backbencher concerns about re-election. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey’s first post-election budget was judged to have missed general public sentiment, and so they were removed by their Liberal colleagues ... But there no longer exists much room at all n Australian politics, which is reflected in a budget that is, in Treasurer Scott Morrison’s words, pragmatic rather than ideological.”

While the Sydney Morning Herald, still impacted by strike action, played it straight.

What they said:

Michelle Grattan: ‘Scott Morrison has delivered a surprisingly big taxing budget that pays for the last burial rites of the 2014 toxic Abbott legacy. ... Malcolm Turnbull and his Treasurer are looking for fresh starts in all sorts of areas.

Morrison’s messages are that the government has noted people’s pain, with slow wages growth resulting in the frustration of those “not getting ahead”. He is optimistic about the future. “We are now moving towards the end of this difficult period”, he said, and with signs of an improving international economy “there is clearly the potential for better days ahead”.’

The West Australian goes all western, appropriately, with Morrison starring as the gunslinger.

The Australian Financial Review cast Morrison as Mary Poppins, gliding in to land using her deficit umbrella.

What they said:

Phillip Coorey:

This isn’t just a budget of which Labor would be proud, and the Greens can hardly grizzle either. It taxes big, spends big, builds big, looks after the needy — and belts the banks.

It ... is hard to critique from a Labor, Green, One Nation or Senate micro-party point of view.

It does almost all they have been baying for years. And the ever-restive Liberal base has no cause for concern. Negative gearing deductions have taken a trim, and the Catholic school issue needs to be sorted, but there is nothing to compare to the raid on their super from last year.

We will add the rest of the country’s front pages throughout the morning.