No room for doomsayers as PM steers steady course

Scott Morrison has been vindicated in his determination to stay the course on the economy.

The Prime Minister refuses to be spooked by doomsayers. And voters are not buying the panic-merchant hyperbole in spite of the writedown by global ­agencies of Australia’s growth forecasts.

For the meantime at least, the Coalition is on safe ground politically and Morrison has been rewarded for choosing stability over a knee-jerk response to some bad numbers.

While Morrison is enjoying an extended honeymoon for a newly elected government, no one in the government would deny that they have had a messy week.

Increasing criticism to its ­response to the drought will be an issue it will have to deal with. This is an issue of communication failure rather than a policy failure.

Nevertheless, Anthony Albanese has done well to steer Labor tactics back to the main game by seeking to exploit the two issues that are currently most fraught for the government — drought and the economy. So far, however, it is having ­little effect.

Despite Albanese’s efforts, he continues to be dogged by Labor’s internal dissent over the party’s climate change targets and the ongoing corruption scandal in the NSW branch.

And he certainly doesn’t need distractions such as the stunts on national security that his home ­affairs spokeswoman Kristina ­Keneally provided last week.