Scott Morrison's in the process of reversing gravity. He's busy upending everything we think we knew about politics and, in the process, throwing away all those old economic constants - you know, things like the Liberals are tight with money while Labor spends, or the coalition slashes the public service but it bloats under Labor. It's shape-shifting with a vengeance and, at least so far, it's leaving the opposition stranded. They're still stuck on the island of the past certainty and being rapidly bypassed by the changing eddies and currents of the new Morrison unorthodoxy.
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Go, to begin with, to all we know about budgeting.
Morrison's realised that the traditional conservative obsessions - about debt and deficits, balanced budgets, and reducing debt - are just a state of mind. After all, he reckons, he's been Treasurer and it wasn't that hard and he's now confident he 'gets' it. He's the first PM since John Howard to have done both jobs and he isn't going to let any economist tell him what to do, particularly if it might get in the way of winning an election.
That's why he instructed Josh Frydenberg to prise open those massive pots of money that Morrison saw in Treasury's basement and began flinging dollars at anyone who's lining up to receive them. The Lord gives.
Not the poor, of course, because his Lord also taketh away from those who do not believe. Instead this government's giving to middle Australia with a vengeance, to those people who are doing fine but want a bit more and who, incidentally, are the very people who will decide the next election.
The background to this is that the old 'science' of economics has now fallen apart. The Reserve Bank's been dumbfounded as it discovers that guaranteeing perpetually low interest rates has stimulated property purchases (who would have guessed?) and is so simultaneously keen to stoke inflation that it's way too terrified to remove the punch bowl from the party.
Morrison's not dumb. He knows, just like Kevin Rudd back in 2008, he's been given a blank cheque to spend and that's exactly what he's doing. But, unlike Rudd, he's not attempting to put constraints on where all that money he's funnelling through can be spent, he's just shovelling it as fast as he can into the economic furnace.
It represents a huge, radical shift that's whisking Labor's traditional supports from under it. Nobody's listening to Anthony Albanese who's trying hard and a lovely bloke. Unfortunately his entire strategy for victory depends on support continuing to slowly slip away from the government and that won't happen. The party needs a new leader like Tanya Plibersek if it want's to redefine the dynamic.
It needs to seize the initiative back from the government, but that's easier said than done. Particularly when facing a big spender like Morrison.
- Nicholas Stuart is a regular columnist.