Clever inclusions set Scott Morrison up for agile responses in crucial year

Scott Morrison has recast the machin­ery of his government at the highest levels, expanding input from Queensland, the regions­ and women as he promotes his vanquished leadership rival, Peter Dutton, Education Minister Dan Tehan, and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston.

As part of the overhaul of senior­ ministerial roles, Greg Hunt’s strong performance as a can-do Health Minister during the COVID-19 pandemic means he will run the new implement­ation committee of cabinet to ­ensure promises are delivered.

Facing a pre-Christmas cabinet reshuffle, potential realignment of departmental heads, an uncertain year of economic recovery­, a coronavirus vaccine roll-out and constantly changing budget demands, the Prime Minister has made dramatic changes to ministerial and departmental responsibility.

Taking advantage of the crises of floods, bushfires and the pandemic, as well as the experience of the national cabinet, rolling economic decisions and the departure of Mathias Cormann as finance minister, Mr Morrison has sought to use the experience of existing ministers to improve the Coali­tion’s performance.

By expanding the roles of existing ministers without changing portfolios, he is also limiting the need for a large and destabilising cabinet reshuffle before Christmas, while recognising the political threat from Labor.

Liberal and Nationals ministers are using Labor’s fall in reg­ional and rural support to cemen­t gains made at last year’s election, particularly in Queensland.

Parliament resumes next week for the final two-week sitting of 2020, before an eight-week break, and Mr Morrison and Anthony Albanese are both planning frontbench changes for what is still a potential election year in 2021.

The Opposition Leader has concentrated his attack on the Morrison government as being all about marketing, announcements and photo opportunities but failing to deliver on bushfire relief, being unable to co-ordinate nation­al responses to crises and not spending funds allocated for building projects.

Mr Albanese has derided Mr Morrison as “Scotty from marketing”, always there for the photo op “but never there for the follow-up” and used revelations from Senate estimates committees about waste and suspect spending.

Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, ridiculed the new imple­mentation committee of cabinet, now on equal footing with the expenditure­ review committee in charge of budget decisions and the national security committee overseeing defence and security.

Mr Marles said in parliament that the implementation committee was evidence the Coalition did not deliver on promises.

But Mr Morrison argued it was a result of the emergency budget and health measures. Some ministers refer to the new committee as the government’s ver­sion of a Senate estimates com­mit­tee, ­allowing it to test depart­mental and ministerial perform­ance with­out the damaging public­­ity.

“The policy implementation committee has been established particularly because of the extensive number of measures that have been incorporated in this year’s budget, in particular to ensure­ that they’re being implemented as quickly as possible because­ they relate to pandemic responsiveness,” the Prime Minister told parliament.

As Home Affairs Minister, Mr Dutton was already on the NSC but has now been appointed to the budget review committee to ensure a Queensland representative, a hard economic view and to use his long ministerial experience as the only minister left from the Howard government ministry. He is also in the Coalition leadership group and is being given more profile on defence matters.

Mr Tehan’s inclusion in the ERC provides a regional Liberal perspective from Victoria.

The appointment of Senator Ruston to the budget review committee ensures a representative of a large-spending portfolio involved in COVID-19 responses, and a woman, is able to put a view in the key committee, while ­Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews puts a woman on the implementation committee.

Minister for Government Serv­ices Stuart Robert, another Queens­lander and an ally of Mr Morrison, is also on the imple­ment­ation committee.