Scott Morrison

I don't care how often we change leaders, so long as no one gets tortured

A lot of people are alarmed at the rate at which prime ministers get changed these days. Personally, I鈥檇 be happy to have a new PM every week so long as none of them torture any innocent people in isolated offshore prison camps, writes Carlo Sands.

New PM Scott Morrison's first lie: 'We're on your side'

Shortly after #libspill, United States President Donald Trump tweeted his congratulations to Scott Morrison, who replaced Malcolm Turnbull as Australian prime minister on August 24. The聽two have a lot in common.

Budget will worsen inequality

The wealthy and corporations got a visit from Santa Claus, but the rest of us got Scrooged again on Budget night.

A windfall in tax income 鈥 derived in part from higher than expected royalties and corporate taxes in the mining sector, owing to higher prices for iron ore, coal and oil 鈥 provided ideal conditions for the government鈥檚 pre-election budget.

There was never a chance that Treasurer Scott Morrison would use this windfall to boost social spending 鈥 that just wouldn鈥檛 accord with the Malcolm Turnbull government鈥檚 鈥渢rickle down鈥 economics.

Inequality and the 'politics of envy'

Federal Treasurer , and accuses Labor of pursuing a dishonest campaign based on the "politics of envy". Morrison claims Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's statement that inequality has reached a 75-year high is a "lie".

Budget attacks on ordinary people use scalpel instead of sledgehammer

Complaints by conservative commentators that Treasurer Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have delivered a 鈥溾 show how low expectations are that any federal government in Australia will deliver a budget aiming to advance genuine social justice in this country.

A 鈥榣eft-leaning鈥 budget? Fake news is alive and well, then

It is just as well we are so alert these days to 鈥渇ake news鈥, otherwise some might actually believe media claims the federal government has delivered budget.

That lump of dense matter in parliament

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison pulled out a lump of coal in parliament on February 9 and launched a rant in which he accused the opposition of 鈥渃oal-o-phobia鈥 and regurgitated PM Malcolm Turnbull's outrageous National Press Club speech urging more coal-fired power stations be built.

Morrison went wild while behind him other Liberals and Nationals joined in a pantomime by passing the lump of coal to each other.

Morrison鈥檚 hand-out to developers no solution to housing affordability crisis

The federal treasurer鈥檚 鈥渟olution鈥 to the housing affordability crisis is to get state governments to relax restrictions on housing developers to increase supply.

Scott Morrison told the industry鈥檚 peak body, the Urban Development Institute, on October 24 that 鈥渉ousing in Australia, especially in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, is expensive and increasingly unaffordable, but that does not mean it is overvalued.鈥

How can you have more affordable housing and keep prices up at the same time?

The answer is you can鈥檛 do both.

Morrison seems a bit confused on tax, almost as if he's a hypocrite

鈥淢ore tax is not the answer.鈥 This was made by Treasurer Scott Morrison on August 24 in response to a proposal from the Western Australian Nationals for a mining tax on Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

The real class war: Liberals attack workers, poor

Treasurer Scott Morrison's speech to a Bloomberg business breakfast in Sydney on August 25 echoed previous warnings by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that Australians were heading for economic trouble if the new parliament fails to pass the government's "omnibus" budget package.

Sale of Ausgrid should be stopped once and for all

In the recent controversy over the proposed sale of key NSW state-owned electricity company Ausgrid to Chinese bidders, the primary issue seems to have been lost: a vital public asset such as Ausgrid should not be privatised in the first place, whoever the potential buyers might be. A storm broke out over the planned sale of Ausgrid by the state government to either of two Chinese corporations: the government-owned State Grid Corporation of China; or the privately-owned Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure Group (CKI), controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing.

Scott Morrison: ensuring the government lives within its means

In Treasurer Scott Morrison's budget speech he promised to "ensure the government lives within its means" and warned "this is not a time to be splashing money around". Shortly afterwards, he hosted an invitation-only party, which cost taxpayers $11,625 for food and drinks. This is more than even Joe Hockey spent on post-budget parties. In all, the Treasurer spent $4620 on a selection of hot and cold canapes, $5445 on alcohol, and $560 for eight wait staff to cater the 90-minute function for 100 people.