I noticed that Lenore Taylor again had quite a bit of column space in the herald yesterday and followed it up with a third consecutive appearance on Insiders, I wonder if she’s about to get promotion in Fairfax? God I hope not.
On insiders this morning Lenore said something to the effect of; it’s a bit unfair that Tony Abbott seems painted as the coalitions weaklink when he did such a good job getting them into a winning position to begin with. He hasn’t done a great job and the polls do infact reflect that. It was a stretch for David Marr to claim that the preferred prime minister poll was “all important” but what Tony Abbott has not done that Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull were doing reasonably well was present himself as an alternative prime minister of Australia and his party as the alternative government of Australia.
In Abbotts short time as leader he has moved Bronwyn Bishop and Kevin Andrews to the frontbench, he has described homosexuality as threatening, he tried to tip toe around workchoices, he has paraded himself as a climate skeptic and his party as the party of climate denial, he has proposed a new tax from opposition, he delivered by far the most bitter, negative, partisan budget reply of the four that I have seen, he arrived nervous, aggressive and hostile to a debate, he admitted an inability to restrain himself in hearty discussions, he named Barnaby Joyce as shadow minister for finance and is agitating for a return of TPV’s.
The coalition leads in the polls should not be over-valued; the criticisms of the prime minister pertain to a lack of action on climate change, an overly conservative social agenda and a tax on mining. The first two are issues Abbott will not win any mileage on, the third is an issue most unpopular with the governments enemies, a 400 person poll in the most conservative, wealthy, liberal voting state in the country is not cause for coalition champagne corks. Finally all the issues are reason for disappointment, unlikely will they lead to election day abandonment.
Meanwhile employment is high, the deficit is falling, GDP is healthy, the socceroos are playing in a world cup, more laptops are arriving in schools every day and many would be coalition voters think that if they just wait a little while longer they might get to have Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister. Tony Abbott hasn’t played the liberal party into a winning position, he’s gotten them swings of five percent plus in seats like O’conner, Indi and Wide Bay, in Eden Monaro Robertson, Mcewan and Dickson where the coalition needs the swing, the ALP will probably get a 2-3 percent swing.