As JobKeeper is wound back, the government’s cheap flights scheme is a huge punt

It’s hardly a new phenomenon: the ramping up of positive government announcements just before the weekend when Newspoll is due to go out in the field to measure how voters are judging our politicians.

But this is perhaps the first time a nervous government has offered half-price holidays to lift the public mood.

The Morrison Government’s announcement of its $1.2 billion Tourism Aviation Network Support package on Thursday — payments to the major airlines which are to be passed on to contented taxpayer holiday makers from April 1 — was announced with little detail about how the destinations eligible for the cut price fares had been chosen, other than that they were destinations hit by a falloff in international tourism.