Unified and determined, the Morrison government could build on groundwork laid in the preceding six years in office, just as Howard had done in the wake of the Tampa and the September 11, 2001 terror attacks while the stirrings of the mining boom allowed him to lavish tax cuts on voters.

"That is what we seek to do through this term," Morrison told his troops, seven months after the May 18 poll.

"We can be proud of what we have achieved and also what we have saved the country from.

The success of policy is not recognised in its articulation, but its delivery, its implementation. — Scott Morrison

"If we hold our unity and don't allow ourselves to be distracted, then this can and will be one of the great terms of Coalition government."

But outside that closed-door meeting, the government was seeing anything but smooth sailing in Canberra's final sitting fortnight before the long summer break.

Controversies and stuff-ups

Fighting controversies and stuff-ups on a series of fronts, the results were messy and mixed at best.


After a shock loss at the hands of Pauline Hanson on the union-busting Ensuring Integrity bill, Morrison and Senate leader Mathias Cormann regrouped and successfully convinced Jacqui Lambie to vote to repeal the medevac asylum seeker laws.

The government worked hard to get the Tasmanian independent over the line but insists no deal was made. An emotional Lambie refused to outline her conditions in the Senate chamber, citing national security. The Coalition is edging closer to taking up New Zealand's offer to take hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru, but first plans to exhaust transfers to the United States.

Emboldened by a win in the final week, Morrison moved to put his stamp on the Canberra bubble on Thursday – announcing one of the biggest shake-ups of the federal public service in a generation.

He slashed the number of departments from 18 to 14 and sacked five departmental secretaries, putting the capital's public servants on notice and demanding a more efficient and responsive bureaucracy to serve his "quiet Australians".

"The success of policy is not recognised in its articulation, but its delivery, its implementation," Morrison said.

"Anyone involved in business will understand that it's the execution of your strategy that matters, not just having one. I want a public service that's very much focused on implementation."

After a consolidation and reorganisation due to be in place on February 1 next year, the 150,000-strong public service will be in Morrison's own image.

Gone are experienced secretaries including Mike Mrdak from Communications, Heather Smith from Industry and Daryl Quinlivan from Agriculture, and back is current EY partner Andrew Metcalfe.


Metcalfe, removed from Agriculture after Tony Abbott won the 2013 election, will now lead the combined Agriculture, Water and Environment Department.

Labor pounced on the changes, demanding the government rule out further sackings of the APS rank and file and labelling the Prime Minister "loose with the truth" when he said budget savings weren't expected.

Already 15,000 public servants have gone since the Coalition came to government in 2013.

Next week, Morrison will go further, expected to release the government's response to a lengthy review of the APS conducted by former Telstra boss David Thodey.

The review panel, originally commissioned by Malcolm Turnbull to bring departments into the 21st century, was too timid for Morrison earlier this year. Their initial recommendations prompted demands for a rewrite and a tougher line – less frank and fearless policy talk and more "congestion busting" to implement Coalition policies.

War of words

Few had a worse end to the year than Energy and Emissions Minister Angus Taylor. Already under investigation by NSW Police for the use of doctored documents related to the travel bill of Sydney City Council, a Senate committee on Wednesday night found he had sought to use his authority to influence an investigation into environmental land clearing related to a company with links to his family.

Then an escalating war of words with author Naomi Wolf blew up on Thursday, with the pair trading accusations of anti-Semitic insults over a complex story involving a Christmas tree at Oxford University in the 1990s.


This provided much fodder for the opposition, with Labor leader Anthony Albanese declaring it Morrison's "Angus Horribilis".

Regardless, so far there haven't been any pre-Christmas reshuffles on the Coalition or Labor frontbenches and a super Saturday of byelections in late summer looks unlikely to take place.

Persistent rumours of retirements and resignations from both sides – including Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and senior Labor figures Mark Dreyfus and Mike Kelly – haven't eventuated.

Compared to the last Parliament, the degree of unity is very strong. — Coalition MP

Looking forward, Morrison still has unresolved issues to deal with in 2020. Industrial Relations Minister and chief parliamentary tactician Christian Porter ruthlessly rammed through a rejigged union integrity bill in the House of Representatives, prompting howls of outrage from Labor MPs that they were being denied the chance to debate it. This is the first step to reopening negotiations with the crossbench.

Morrison has also gone back to the drawing board on religious freedom laws after faith groups – a key part of his base – raised objections that the legislation did not go far enough in protecting faith.

Strains with China

Until the rains come, drought will continue to demand a response, while a summer of fires will also intensify scrutiny on the government's climate policies.


Strains with China are unlikely to abate. Notably, Morrison will make his first overseas visit for 2020 to two fellow members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, India and Japan.

The Middle East could also flare as a flash point, amid renewed tensions between Iran and the US. An Australian frigate is due to arrive in January to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

And Morrison's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, will rip the scab off the leadership wounds with the April release of his eagerly awaited memoir. The former leader is not expected to hold back in his character assessments and advice.

People are pretty upbeat and despite the distractions, everyone is happy with how the year has ended. — Coalition MP

Perhaps most critical to the government's prospects is the fragility of the economy. The national accounts and retail sales data this week showed economic growth remained sub-par at 1.7 per cent, productivity and business investment is weak and consumers are keeping their wallets and purses shut despite tax cuts.

The mid-year economic update is just over a week away but the government is holding fire on any meaningful stimulus until at least the May budget.

Despite these challenges, after years of turmoil, overall ministers and backbenchers are generally comfortable with where the government is positioned.

A series of "policy deep dives" involving backbenchers has given MPs confidence the government will have a strong agenda to prosecute in 2020.


"Compared to the last Parliament, the degree of unity is very strong," one MP said.

"People are pretty upbeat and despite the distractions [the Taylor fiasco and union bill loss], everyone is happy with how the year has ended."

A senior minister adds: "I think this is the stablest I've seen the Parliament since 2010. It's the first time since then we've got a government that can more or less set its agenda. Obviously we've still got the crossbench but it is a lot easier to work with."

Labor focuses on jobs

Labor leader Anthony Albanese believes his team is in a better-than-expected position going into 2020, having picked themselves up off the mat after Bill Shorten's election loss. The release of the party's campaign post mortem was aimed at ending the navel-gazing and finger pointing.

Asked this week what was his biggest lesson of 2019, the Labor leader said politicians needed to be positive and optimistic about the future of the country.

"We need to talk about the need to create wealth as well as its distribution," he said. "We need to talk about the issues of concern to all Australians. Our first priority is jobs."

Albanese will make his third "vision statement" speech this weekend, promising to talk about democracy, the strength of Parliament and freedom of the press.


He has foreshadowed a slimming down of Labor's policy platform, ahead of the party's national conference to be held this time next year.

Albanese believes the government has few policies for this term, and is floundering on economic management in the face of global uncertainty and lacklustre growth.

He repeatedly labelled Morrison "an ad man without a plan", a reference to the Prime Minister's marketing background, while also making much of his unwillingness to tolerate scrutiny.

Morrison returned the insults, saying Albanese was "captain angry" and stuck in opposition.

Don't expect 2020 to be the year of the quiet politician.