The coalition’s internal policy process is continuing to malfunction and is continuing to damage the Liberals’ relationship with its key business constituency.

Whether Scott Morrison actually meant to announce a coalition commitment to slashing skilled migration isn’t clear — his exchange with Marius Benson on ABC NewsRadio this morning is one of the more painful interviews you’ll hear for a while — but again the Liberals have managed to make themselves a target when the focus should be on the government.

Worse, it has upset business. Whereas the paid parental leave policy — another policy seemingly knocked together in haste — was ostensibly targeted at large businesses, cutting back on skilled migration directly affects recruitment across all types and sizes of industry. This is less about business’s reflexive support for high immigration and more about a direct threat to their capacity to obtain skilled labour.

The AFR’s report that Tony Abbott had an unimpressive meeting with the Business Council — conjuring more comparisons with the famously business-unfriendly Mark Latham, who also lost his temper with the peak business lobby — won’t do anything to help the perception that the current Liberal leadership is at odds with a core element of its constituency.

This isn’t entirely new. Malcolm Turnbull had far stronger links with the business community, and his departure will significantly undermine the party’s fundraising capacity in Sydney.  However, if you cast your mind back to last year, you’ll recall his opposition to the second stimulus package put him at odds with much of the business community, and the coalition’s opposition to the “Ruddbank” proposal caused much dismay in the commercial property sector — an important source of donations.

But after rushing out a poor climate change action policy, letting Barnaby Joyce loose in high finance and then offending business with the PPL proposal, the last thing the opposition needed was to directly threaten business’s capacity to recruit skilled labour.  There’s not even a populist pay-off of tapping into community concerns about high immigration because of the confused signals coming out the opposition, especially given Abbott’s refusal to endorse any particular policy.

Abbott may figure a commitment to IR reform will get business back on side but he needs to be careful. Labor under Rudd has assiduously cultivated business, and its commitment to warding off recession is appreciated by business, if not by the opposition. The Liberals should stop and wonder when they’re booing and catcalling in Parliament at the mention of Heather Ridout’s name why they find themselves attacking one of the country’s most respected business representatives, who should be naturally Liberal-aligned.

There’s no danger of major sections of the business community ever shifting their support permanently to Labor, but the short-term populist benefits of adopting positions at odds with business aren’t cost free.

Meanwhile, they need to work out how exactly they develop, agree and announce significant policy. We’ve only got about six months until the election and these sort of mini debacles will look progressively worse if they keep happening. Eventually voters will start to notice.