We live in interesting times of that there's
no doubt. Alister Drysdale, of the
Business Spectator and former senior
adviser to Malcolm Fraser and Jeff Kennett
tells us that:

"We have a PM who sees her job as
putting the national interest first. It is about
delivering good public policy and hoping that
translates into good politics. It's about
substance not sham."

"The Opposition of course is in an enviable
position. It can paint the government "as the most
incompetent in Australia's history" and have it
faithfully reported and repeated. It can continue
to oppose almost everything the government proposes;
knowing it has the public largely onside along with
sections of the media set on regime change - whatever
the price."

"It can continue with its own "aspirational" policies
that arent's set in stone. It can continue to dig up
dirt files and call for instant elections, thus
adding to a general sense of political instability."

Drysdale predicts that the Gillard government will continue
with infrastructure reform. They will ensure the NBN roll-out
doesn't get bogged down in regulatory morass, and they
will "sell" the carbon package when it comes into effect July
1st.

Politically, they will draw a deep line in the sand between
its economic strategies and job management and those
spruiked by the Opposition, in varying forms.

In other words the government will simply get on with the
grind of governing.

The Opposition will continue to keep going down a
base-level political path.

The carbon tax is just another reason, along with others, to justify
manufacturers shutting down Australian production and moving offshore.

Next thing Lexi and Belly will be telling us that we need more
jobs here! Shoot yourselves in your feet kids, eventually you
will click, when it hurts enough.

Lexi,

Alister Drysdale was a press secretary, not a political or economic adviser, and while his opinion is important to himself and to you it is not shared with the majority of Australians.

Juliar is perceived to put her own interests ahead of the national interest, and has generally produced poor policy such as the NBN and carbon tax which she steadfastly shields from independent scrutiny.

His prediction that Juliar will sell her carbon tax is looking more and more unlikely.

SM: Labor has thrown billions of tax payers dollars at lower income in the hope that it will compensate for the carbon tax, but this has hardly registered in the polls. The next 18 months will be death by 1000 cuts as the bad news trickles through. Every price increase, every job loss will be accompanied by speculation as to how much of it was due to the carbon tax and Labor's broken promise."

The Coalition's strategy in a nutshell, plus boats = votes, of course.

What is demonstrated by all this is how wonderful the Coalition is at being in opposition, and may it remain so until the current governments reforms are complete and bedded into national life.

Dear LF,

Amen to that!

LF,

Are you suffering from the delusion that Abbott is not going to strip out the carbon tax? Given his hugely successful and unrelenting campaign, not to do so would be electoral suicide, and Abbott does not strike me as displaying suicidal tendencies.

When the government implement stupid policies (that are not so good for the voters), it is good for the opposition polling.