Sharri makes budget sparks about The Oz’s Labor-lite verdict
The Daily Telegraph’s political editor Sharri Markson had something to say in her Friday column:
His Budget has been labelled Labor-lite. Scott Morrison has been caricatured as looking into Wayne Swan’s reflection in the mirror.
This newspaper had that cartoon on the front page ... Is Markson having a dig at us? The Australian’s budget editorial, Wednesday:
This is the political strategy at play from Mr Morrison and his Prime Minister; they are blunting Bill Shorten’s attack lines ... not by winning the argument but by giving into Labor’s agenda.
She then drags our Judith Sloan into it. Daily Telegraph, Friday:
The Treasurer has even been called MorriSwan.
Leave Sloan alone. Judith in The Australian, Wednesday:
... let’s call him MorriSwan ...
Markson wants to show us how it’s done? Daily Telegraph, Friday:
But a deeper analysis actually shows the Budget handed down this week has many similarities with a classic Howard-era Budget.
Markson doesn’t mention the current deficit figures once ... The Australian, Wednesday:
The deficit for this financial year will be $37.6bn ...
Howard didn’t have to deal with a deficit that big. Daily Telegraph, Friday:
Labor’s $10.3 billion deficit.
Peta Credlin had it covered in The Australian, Wednesday:
Turnbull ... took a gamble on a budget reset away from debt reduction and deficit repair ... The missed opportunity to do more with the budget knife has meant only a paper-thin surplus of $7.6 billion ... in 2019-20.
Markson says spending cuts are too hard. Daily Telegraph, Friday:
Tony Abbott would say the solution is significant Senate reform ... But until that’s achieved, had Malcolm Turnbull announced another round of spending cuts and triggered parliamentary gridlock, he may as well have started writing his concession speech to Bill Shorten.
But spending has to be dealt with. Peter van Onselen in The Australian, Wednesday:
... paying it (debt) down once we finally do get back into surplus looks like a task beyond anyone currently in the parliament.
And even Howard’s treasurer, Peter Costello, thinks Morrison’s budget doesn’t do the job. Costello speaking at a PwC business breakfast in Canberra, Wednesday:
No-one now is talking about paying back debt. The surpluses projected are not enough to pay back debt. The plan is that as the economy grows, the debt to GDP ratio will fall
Even Markson sees the Labor elements. Daily Telegraph, Friday:
And yes, bank policy is out of Labor’s class warfare playbook ... The Medicare levy, too, was Gillard’s 2013 policy ... This is classic ALP stuff ...
Paul Kelly could have told you that. The Australian, Wednesday:
... it has stolen Labor’s populist agenda ... Higher taxes are imposed on banks, multinationals and foreigners - a distinctly populist branch. Public sector-inspired nation building is now a Liberal imperative. Every Liberal fatal flaw against Labor is turned into a fortress — guaranteeing Medicare, funding the NDIS, seizing the Gonski model.