Dead, buried and cremated…till the next election
The ghost of Work Choices still haunts Tony Abbott and his bid to enter the Lodge.
While he has tried to distance himself from the previous industrial reforms that were a vote loser for John Howard, this issue will not go away.
What was Abbott thinking when he pulled the ‘written promise’ stunt during a radio interview last week?
When you bring back to public memory a similar swifty that Mark Latham tried a few years ago you release all the wrong stenches of campaign gimmickry that become very hard to dissipate.
While Abbott is trying to neutralise a big electoral negative, the idea that a conservative party can simply ‘adjourn’ any serious industrial (and consequently economic) reform will disappoint many.
Abbott is by instinct a political street fighter, so waving the white flag, on such a significant issue, makes voters suspect.
Abbott promising never to resurrect Work Choices (or reform under a different name) is like KFC undertaking to remove chicken from the menu.
Then we have Gillard.
Our PM wants a ‘community forum’ to reach consensus about climate change, even though we have not one but two houses of parliament, namely the House of Representatives and the Senate, that the public pay millions of dollars a year for, to make such decisions!
Have I missed something?
What we will not see in this campaign is courageous leadership.
We will have, up to our eyeballs, risk-free, anaemic mutterings of future change ‘if only’ you will vote for us.
It is all about Labour trying to sneak in again for another 3 years and then pray like crazy they maintain some policy consistency with interest rates and unemployment in check.
For the Liberals it is all about reclaiming their rightful place in government (or so they think).
That however won’t be enough for a change of government. At least not this election.
Despite the disquiet over Rudd’s removal and the tardy handling of the mining tax, the Australian public don’t seem to want to change horses just yet.
I predict we will see Labour returned to power, but only just.
By Robert Apps
PS This post was put together before the leader’s debate last night. The debate was, consistent with the campaign so far, uneventful.
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“We will have, up to our eyeballs, risk-free, anaemic mutterings of future change ‘if only’ you will vote for us.”
Amen to that brother! Great analysis.
As a rusted on supporter of one of the major parties, this election campaign is extremely disheartening and I imagine those like myself on the other side are feeling the same.
Neither side is standing up for their ‘supposed’ principles, instead we have a focus group driven rush to court swing voters in the outer metropolitan seats – leaving us with an incredibly tepid, bland, boring, meaningless, political discourse that does no one any good! I would they were hot or cold, but because they are neither, they make me feel like vomiting!
Hey PJ, I have not encountered an election that is has so failed to capture the public imagination. we were tired of the election in the first week, and I believe, the blood of the former PM has barely dried from the caucus floor….so there is something surreal about everything.
it will be interesting to see how much mileage is made of the liberals endorsing the guy (then sacking him) over comments he apparently made online re Islam etc..
I disagree, for me this election has grabbed my attention more than any previous. I have never been so sure about who to vote for and for what reasons. Maybe that comes with age but I think the recent events, especially the Rudd sacking have made many take notice of politics and focus on the policies and not on the personality leading the party (as happened in ’07).
The nail in the coffin for me was the preference deal Labor did with the Greens.
If the Greens get the balance of power in the Senate, then things will rapidly deteriorate for all Australians.
I really like this statement Rob:
It is all about Labour trying to sneak in again for another 3 years and then pray like crazy they maintain some policy consistency with interest rates and unemployment in check.
For the Liberals it is all about reclaiming their rightful place in government (or so they think).
it is interesting how Gillard has taken quite a hammering in the press just after the debate. Abbott seemed to take a real battering the first week. will the machete of our fourth estate swing back to him in the final days? we shall see…
I feel more so than any other election that I am trying to choose a lesser of the two evils. A Hobson’s choice if you will.
for those interested Peter Hartcher has an interesting article in todays SMH and Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan have articles in the Australian which seem to touch on themes of this post. eg, Hartcher says we have 2 candidates for PM but no leaders!