Australia’s new treasurer is a ruthless “Mr Fix-it” with a record of being parachuted into troubled portfolios.
Scott Morrison, who was tapped yesterday to replace the ousted Joe Hockey, spearheaded Australia’s controversial asylum-seeker policy, before shepherding unpopular pension reforms through the Senate.
The 47-year-old has shifted to the right along with his Liberal Party since entering politics as a moderate eight years ago, when he used his maiden speech in parliament to call for aid for Africa, quoting Bono, South African former archbishop Desmond Tutu and William Wilberforce.
His appointment as part of a Cabinet reshuffle is likely go some way to appeasing party critics of more moderate new Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
It might also please a business community frustrated with a lack of policy direction as it struggles with the end of a once-in-a-century mining boom and a slowdown in top trading partner China.
Political analysts expect Morrison to translate his penchant for defined and measurable goals to the public purse at a time the budget deficit is forecast to blow out to A$35 billion (US$25.2 billion) this fiscal year, double initial estimates.
“There are two important things to say about Morrison. First, he does the work. He knows his brief. Second, you get the feeling that he is listening,” Community Council of Australia chief executive David Crosbie said. “He’s not necessarily committing, but he is listening.”
Morrison came to prominence when, as opposition immigration spokesman in 2011, he criticized the government’s decision to pay for relatives of the victims of the sinking of an asylum-seeker boat to fly to Sydney for the funerals.
Political opponents and some within his own party condemned the comments, but he won support among right-wing shock jocks and a sizeable chunk of the Australian public amid rising concern about the numbers of asylum seekers.
Morrison last year was given the high-profile immigration portfolio. As the chief enforcer of the government’s “Operation Sovereign Borders,” he intensified his hardline approach in the face of opposition from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees agency and human rights organizations.
Some analysts have pointed out apparent contradictions between Morrison’s job and his personal beliefs.
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