It’s of course very flattering when Scott Morrison dedicates speeches and interviews to commenting on or making up Labor Party or Opposition policy, but it’s probably past time he focused on the economy and the Government’s agenda.

Recently, we saw another speech from the Treasurer fixated on the Opposition – he mentioned ‘Bill Shorten’ six times and ‘Labor’ ten times.

It’s hardly becoming for a Treasurer – just 12 months after the last election and just after his post-election Budget to be reduced to giving speeches and interviews focused on Opposition policy. If Morrison just spent 30 per cent of his time focusing on his own job rather than Labor policy the nation would be better off.

If the Treasurer was doing his day job then we might not have seen him so horribly out of touch with the community when it comes to inequality and so horribly wrong with the fact that inequality is worsening.

Only recently, the RBA Governor Dr Lowe said that inequality: “grew quite a lot in the 1980s and the 1990s and it has risen a little bit just recently… It has become more pronounced in the past few years because of the of the rise in assets prices and people that own those assets have seen their wealth go up”.

A few days prior to that the Treasurer had claimed that inequality had “actually gotten better”. If the Treasurer was actually doing his day job, then we might not have seen him caught out over his first home saver policy with the ATO warning savers about proceeding until the legislation has passed the Parliament!

Chris Bowen MP

As electricity and gas prices spiral apace, Malcolm Turnbull faces a real challenge to break the political deadlock on climate change policy that has persisted for a decade.

Business and industry are crying out for policy certainty.

Instead, the Clean Energy Target, which is a cornerstone of the Finkel report looks like being sidelined.

Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg, insists electricity affordability must take precedence over carbon reduction. He cites ‘hardship’ stories from the streets.

While there is no doubting the authenticity of his claim, his government has attempted to cut small supplements to lowest income families and the unemployed (which were blocked in the Senate), has stood by while penalty rates have been reduced and is fully prepared to fund a $65 billion corporate tax cut.

The real reason for the Turnbull government’s ambivalence on climate policy is its fear of the sceptics within its very own ranks.

Frank Carroll