In the 120 years since Federation, the ALP has been unlucky in government.
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They have ruled for only one-third of the time, mainly during periods of crisis; both world wars, the early years of the Great Depression, the 1990s recession and the global financial crisis (GFC) in the first decade of this century.
The Liberals have ruled for two-thirds of the time, usually during peace and prosperity; the 1950s wool boom and the mining booms in the 1960s and 2000s.
They are now in power during COVID-19, the worst economic and health crisis ever faced by Australia.
In the good times, people seemed comfortable with the Liberal approach to government, focusing on; individual freedom, private enterprise, smaller government, and balanced budgets.
According to their longest-serving prime minister, Robert Menzies, the role of government is to be "keepers of the ring", meaning establishing the laws and regulations within which economic and social progress may take place.
When the ALP government was confronted with Australia's last major economic crisis, the GFC and its aftermath (2008-13), it dramatically intervened in the economy. Spending increased considerably, turning the Howard government's large surplus into a huge deficit.
This kept the Australian economy afloat during that period.
The ALP government was mercilessly pilloried for these successful policies as "reckless debt and deficit spending". It took the Liberals another seven years to finally come within a whisker of balancing the national budget in January 2020.
The Liberals have stolen the Opposition's policy clothes.
In preparation for this momentous event, the government commissioned black coffee mugs emblazoned with "back in the black" slogans. They are now a collector's item.
However, such hubris was smashed within a month by the arrival of COVID-19. Suddenly, a Liberal government needed to dramatically intervene in the economy with a huge budget deficit to counter the deepening recession.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a pragmatist, was just the person to perform this ideological backflip for the Liberals. Proof of the idiom: "cometh the hour, cometh the man".
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister has thrown away the Liberal Party playbook.
In the 2021 Budget, economic recovery and lower unemployment will be driven by a significant rise in government spending. As a result, restoring a balanced fiscal position has been put on the back-burner. Australia is in good company, with the UK and the US pursuing a similar strategy.
Now, with his deft handling of the COVID-19 crisis, perhaps the best in the world, Morrison has unprecedented authority in the Liberal Party. In this week's budget, his government made the pragmatic decisions necessary to get Australia through its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The federal government has thrown every fiscal weapon in the economic armoury at this problem. The ultimate test of this massive spend-a-thon will be whether they have deployed this money wisely.
In creating such a huge deficit, the federal government is making a determined effort to progress with some of Australia's most pressing social and economic challenges. These include infrastructure, aged care, the NDIS, childcare, social housing and mental health. In the 2021 budget, it seems that no one has been left behind.
The Liberals had little choice other than to increase spending dramatically on a broad front. Governments usually employ several tools to stimulate economic growth. However, monetary policy and population growth are not an option during the COVID-19 recession, with almost zero interest rates and migration at a standstill.
Fiscal policy is all that is left. But the measures now adopted will mean government debt will approach one trillion dollars, and debt and deficit will be built in for at least a decade. Of course, much of this could be reduced in the future with strong economic growth, but there is no guarantee that this will happen.
In this comprehensive budget, the Liberals have intruded upon traditional ALP policy strengths. Anthony Albanese has been wedged by Morrison and only able to criticise the government at the margins.
The Liberals have stolen the Opposition's policy clothes, which has continued the government's political ascendancy.
The ALP's historical bad luck seems to have returned in 2021. This budget appears to be all good news with plenty of winners and very few losers.
Is it an election budget?
What do you think?
Newcastle East's Dr John Tierney AM BEc is a former Hunter-based federal senator
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