For Scott Morrison, as a former marketing and advertising man, and as a Prime Minister who signs correspondence “ScoMo” and receives correspondence from at least one world leader addressing him as such, having momentum is vital. In the last parliamentary sitting weeks of 2019 Morrison lost his mojo, made mistakes, looked scrappy and was distracted.
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Anthony Albanese, as a former leader of the house and someone who revels in the nickname Albo, exploited a tin-pot scandal surrounding Energy Minister Angus Taylor so effectively that major Coalition initiatives were overshadowed. By conflating integrity issues about Westpac and Taylor’s use of wrong figures in a climate change fight with the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, Albanese frustrated Morrison and smothered Coalition announcements such as $1bn in drought relief and half a billion for aged care.
Labor’s tactics also blocked the Coalition’s anti-union-thuggery laws in the Senate, leading to inflated claims of disaster for Morrison and threatening to send the government into the Christmas break with its head down and tail between its legs. But within the space of an hour on Wednesday, Morrison, Peter Dutton and Josh Frydenberg were able to change the debate, switch the pressure and regain momentum in the final sitting of the election year.
A year after suffering a defeat as a minority government over the medivac laws, the re-elected majority Morrison government repealed the Labor-Greens-independent legislation and was able to point to the RBA’s “gentle” economic turning point with annual growth of 1.7 per cent.
A defeat on the medivac repeal would have destroyed confidence, confirmed a lack of strategy and a subsequent vulnerability to tactical attacks and restored Labor’s recovery after a terrible year.
A lower growth figure would have fed the argument for bringing forward tax cuts.
But Morrison can claim justification in fighting for border security and adopting a “calm and steady” economic plan without panicked stimulus spending.
Suddenly, Morrison was leading a government that could control the House of Representatives, negotiate legislation through the Senate, talk about Labor’s dismal record on illegal boat arrivals and border security, link Labor and the Greens on policy and talk about positive, albeit still slow, economic growth and higher average household disposable income. And after so much frustration and anger at having been lectured by Labor on integrity and compassion, Morrison was able to once more assume the high ground and deliver a passionate defence of Coalition border security policies.
The Coalition still has a lot to do next year to build a long-term re-election strategy but at least it’s not going into the end of this year with its head down.
Coalition vow to better bottom line
The Coalition’s pre-election costings will project a $40bn reduction in gross debt by 2028-29, as it proposes to slash Labor’s off-budget investment vehicles and dump plans for student relief.
Rate cut ‘pending’ as inflation in target
Inflation has slipped back into the Reserve Bank’s target range, all but ensuring another interest rate cut in May and giving Labor a boost in the dying days of the election.
ScoMo has his mojo. After a messy, mixed and motley 10 days, the Coalition is back on top legislatively, politically and economically, as it should be in the year of a miraculous election win.