Getting things done is firstly knowing what you want to do and then doing whatever it takes to get them done.

Our new government has shown that so far as illegal migrants are concerned, where there’s a will there’s a way, or at least that’s been the case up until now and hopefully into the future. You really can stop the boats. But more importantly, it shows that if you are determined to find solutions, solutions that will work, you are more than half way towards solving the problem.

Would that I could say the same about the economy. I suppose we will eventually get a commission of audit report, around a year or perhaps more after the last election. But seriously, did we need a commission of audit to make a song and dance about the idiocies of Labor and the mess they made? Before the election there was something. Since then there has been hardly a word. And my question is why the Government has not gone in as hard on the economic side as it has on stopping the boats.

In The Australia today, there is a story on page 2 mentioned on the front page where it says:

Tony Abbott has made it clear that this will be the year in which he focuses on, and commits to economic management as never before.

On that same front page there is an actual story, that is also on the front page of the AFR, in which Bill Shorten “promises to fight for jobs in ‘middle ground’.” The AFR story is that “Shorten offers reform help”.

Why is Bill Shorten on the front pages about fixing the economy and not Tony Abbott or Joe Hockey? Where’s the plan, the strategy, the determination to fix things up?

I know it’s not the done thing to turn over these neutral public servants who run the various departments, but give me a break. These people pushed the stimulus and public spending because that is what their judgment told them was the right thing to do. Why are they still there? Why is their judgment still the primary advice the Government gets? There is not a chance in the world that they have changed their minds about the ruinous strategies they followed and therefore there is equally not a chance that they are capable of offering the advice that will bring the kinds of full scale recovery we had under John Howard and Peter Costello.

So here’s my advice. Get people at the top of our various economic agencies of government who really want balanced budgets and lower public outlays in the same way that Scott Morrison wants to stop the boats. It will make all the difference.