In 'Catallaxy Files today, someone calling himself Spartacus is ruminating on the “...Worst Treasurer in Recent Australian History.” He reckons that Scott Morrison looks like taking over from Wayne Swan as worst Treasurer in our recent history.

As a disillusioned ex-Liberal voter/turned Australian Conservative, I totally agree with the sentiment. The debt is even bigger than Labor ever wrought – and Morrison talks absolute codswollop on TV. No matter what you think about public debt, Morrison and the Coalition have totally abandoned all Coalition principles on government spending and financial matters. Now the clown thinks he can dictate to banks what they do with bonuses to employees. The man is a complete fool.

And we have wait 2 years to drain our particular swamp. If we still exist as a nation that is.

The last two sentences sum up beautifully:

“Forget manufacturing and wages.  Energy and monetary policy have killed those.  As for economic policy, given the current trajectory, it could be worth rejoicing if Australia could even maintain banana republic status.

Rule of law?  For other suckers."

you are right ttbn however spending and taxes will rise drastically with Labour. The swamp won't be drained and we are quickly following Greece. There are far to many self interested parties to stop and reverse the spending. Look at the money totally wasted on the abc to spread their hate and dogmas. Turnbull/Morrison has had no appetite to do what is right future generations. From the renewables scam to pouring billions more into a failed education system.

ttbn,

Your're putting the Tutnbull government between a rock and a hard place. One group of past supporters, see the government as too liberal, therefore deserting in favor of a more conservative party(s). That's not so bad as most of those votes, at least in the lower house, will flow back to the Coalition through preferences. What should be a real worry for them is the small "l" liberal swing voters who perceive Turnbull as too conservative, once promoting himself as a real progressive, those voters have shifted their support more or less to Labor. What must worry the Liberals, is not just the fact their primary vote is down, so is Labor's, to a certain extent, but the fact they are not recovering the vote on a two party preferred basis. The kiss of death is upon them.

Seriously, what does the government have to do to get your vote back, and more importantly, all those lost swing voters as well?

runner,

Yes. Unfortunately the Coalition's choice to do the dirty on its supporters and move Left means that Labor will have to move even further Left to catch up.

Paul,

I don't see how anyone called perceive the new Coalition as being too conservative, but I'm sure some people do, and they wouldn't be voting Liberal anyway. I take it you are talking about the cheer squad of never-ever-voted-Liberal. The polls and the media told us how thrilled those people were with Turnbull; but they were only thrilled because he was to the left of Abbott. They never intended to vote for Turnbull. It was all dumb reporting by the dumb media.

What does the government have to do to get my vote back? It cannot do anything to get my vote back. The Liberal party is stuffed, and I doubt that it will ever recover. I don't know how many more elections I will see, but there is no way I will vote for a party which is no different from Labor in just about everything. The only difference now is border protection, but I don't think it would be long before Turnbull went Left on that if he got back in.

I'm not sure whether Turnbull is stupid or evil.

ttbn, I am not sure in what part of Australia you're in but in Sydney. and I assume Melbourne, and the other larger centres of population, many previous Liberal swing voters are also social progressives. With the divisive infighting and the perceived shift in Turnbulls own agenda, these voters have swung to Labor. It's obvious from the polls two party preferred vote that some who voted for the Coalition last election intend voting Labor this time around, you can't deny that with a claim of "never-ever-voted-Liberal", they certainly did vote Liberal, following the dumping of Abbott.
People like yourself have shifted to those pushing a more conservative line. You're not so much the problem for Turnbull, as I said before in the lower house the conservative vote will return to the Coalition through preferences. However the same vote going to Hanson and Bernardi in the Senate would be a headache for a future Coalition government, it would be a nightmare for any Labor government.

ttbn,

It would be extremely difficult to reach the levels of incompetence shown by Whine Swan. His $9bn cash hand out and the $16bn to build largely unneeded shoddy buildings at double the normal price was a masterpiece of Labor waste.

With TA unable to roll back the wasteful spending bills MT and SM are simply trying to make the system work. While true conservative would like better fiscal prudence, you work with what you can.