Australian Politics, The Libs are back in business

The Libs are back in business
by GDL

When I wrote my last blog " The libs in turmoil" things were really getting bad for the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, so much that he was pleading to the party not to make a bad situation worse. By his own admission he recognised that the situation was " bad".
The motion for a spill of leadership was defeated but the results showed that there was actually a revolt from the Libs backbenchers. To ease the tension, Tony Abbott asked his party members to give him more time and promised that he will do better, consult more and that there will be no more "captain's call."
Since then water has gone under the bridge and Tony Abbott has changed his style and modified his front bench. He has also dumped the unpopular and unfair measures announced in his first budget, among which the medical co-payment, the paid parental leave to the rich  women, the pension indexation. Since the revolt, things have smoothed out within the party and the government seems to be governing instead of inside fighting. The fortunes of the government and that of Tony Abbott look to be in better shape according to the polls. Tony Abbott is now as popular (or unpopular) as Bill Shorten. The government seems to have found a new spokesperson, Scott Morrisson, the Human Services minister, who besides being their best communicator, is now called Mr Everywhere( name given by Lisa of Channel 9). Graham Richardson on his program also describes Scott Morrisson as the most effective minister of the government. Scott Morrisson, whether you like him or not, has stopped the boats, one of the biggest promise of Tony Abbott while in opposition. Every decent Australian would agree that Scott Morrisson has managed to  stop this plague of "illegals" arriving en masse on our shores. No more boat arrivals, no more illegals, no more drowning at sea.
On the basis of his success as Immigration Minister, Scott Morrisson was promoted to Human Services to bring reform to this Ministry which has the lion's share of the budget. Australians are getting older and more and more people are on welfare and pensions. In the last budget the government targeted the sick, the students, the pensioners and all those on welfare for the savings. This caused an uproar and a backlash so much that Joe Hocket went in hiding...leaving it to Scott Morrisson to communicate to the people of Australia on future budget measures eg. reform of pension and childcare.
The last budget was a nightmare for the Abbott government as they were obsessed with returning back the budget to surplus, another of their big promise. In fact since they took office the situation has gone worse and the deficit is bigger. It is now obvious that neither in this term of office, nor in the next decade will any government be able to have a surplus budget. The government have given up on the surplus and will present a budget that will cause the least harm to families and the working class. As we are only  some 18 months till the next elections, it will be a dull budget, one which will not antagonise anyone with measures which will attract voters to their side. A budget to sweeten the mouth of the electorate.( faire la bouche doux comme on dit a Maurice).All these will be revealed tomorrow night (Tuesday 12 May 2015).
Conclusion, after the storm it is now the calm within the Liberal party and they are back in business.