Scott Morrison has bluntly denied claiming Australia’s economy would fall into recession under Labor, a day after delivering a landmark economic speech that was widely interpreted as being such a warning.

On Tuesday the prime minister said half of all Australians of voting age “will have never experienced a recession in their working lives”.



“I don’t want them to learn how important a strong economy is to each and every single one of them by having them endure the cruel lessons of a weaker economy that would occur under the Labor party,” he said.

When asked about those comments on Wednesday morning, Morrison denied saying Labor would cause a recession. “I never said that,” he said.

“Is that what you were inferring?,” a journalist asked.

“I never said that,” Morrison replied again. “What I’m saying is the Australian economy will be weaker under Labor. And it will.”

Morrison was 20 minutes early – the political equivalent of several hours – for the announcement of $80m for “congestion-busting” road upgrades in two key marginal electorates, Dickson and Petrie, in Brisbane’s north.

Who knew all the congestion was in S-E Qld in a string of marginal seats? Govt has promised $244.3 million of its $1 billion Urban Congestion Fund - or a quarter of the total fund... — Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) January 30, 2019

The last time a prime minister announced a road project in this part of the world, the member for Dickson, Peter Dutton, stood behind Malcolm Turnbull and said he had “no comment” on reports that backbenchers were agitating for him to become leader.

Almost a year on, after a Dutton-provoked leadership drama that has harmed the Coalition’s standing in opinion polls, the home affairs minister stood behind Morrison and praised him as “the best prime minister possible” for Queensland.

“Queenslanders want in our prime minister somebody who understands our needs as Queenslanders ... to achieve what we need as families, as businesses, to get on with our lives,” Dutton said.



The last time Morrison was in Queensland, his interactions with journalists were compared to a Clarke and Dawe sketch. This time his schtick came from the script of a Fawlty Towers episode (don’t mention the recession!), but the “daggy dad” routine has been ditched for a new economic message.

“It’s an uncertain world out there, and the worst thing you can do for the Australian economy is to saddle it up with job-destroying, investment-destroying, savings-destroying taxes, which is what Labor is going to do with the Australian economy,” he told reporters.