The escalating cost of living is your ally when you’re an opposition seeking election, but when you’re in office, it’s a rampaging beast to manage, economically and politically.
One of the more bizarre things Scott Morrison said in his hour-long, sometimes combative, Wednesday news conference was that he’d had a “wonderful” conversation with Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday.
Barnaby Joyce rolled by party leadership spill, while Peter Dutton pledges to lead the Liberals with “policies squarely aimed at the forgotten Australians in the suburbs”.
Anthony Albanese had expected the election might be a week earlier than it was, because last Saturday would bump up against Tuesday’s Quad meeting in Tokyo.
Elections where a national security threat have been a major talking point have historically played well for incumbent governments. But this time is different.
In his second big defence announcement in under a week, Scott Morrison on Thursday will outline plans for a major expansion of Australia’s defence workforce to more than 101,000 by 2040.