Morrison faces daunting challenges in fourth term quest

AS election-time budgets go, Australia's had everything - income tax cuts, handouts galore to 6 million people, and cuts to fuel taxes to provide relief from sharply rising petrol prices. Uniquely, the income tax cut of a few hundred dollars will be in the form of a tax refund to about 10 million workers to be delivered after the end of the financial year ending on Jun 30. All this generosity comes even as government debt stands at A$1.2 trillion (S$1.2 trillion) and is projected to grow higher.

So will this give the Liberal-National Party coalition a fighting chance in the coming federal election that must be held before May 21?

Unfortunately for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, his coalition does not seem to have arrested the fall in opinion polls. His problems have been accumulating throughout his term. In 2019, even as forest fires raged around Sydney, the country's financial capital, he went on vacation in Hawaii. He cut short his trip when it was discovered, and tried to mount a public relations exercise that backfired on him.