Gillard tells young people to get on the Electoral rolls but has not announced the date of the Election.
Excuse me, but what’s the tearing hurry? We’ve had a new Prime Minister for five minutes, but we’re being rushed off to an election before we can get her measure. Why? Is there a fear, if the election were delayed until October, the gloss would have worn off and we’d see Julia Gillard in a less hopeful and flattering light?
Is the new leader’s fleeting honeymoon all that stands between Labor and electoral defeat? Is Labor’s record in government that bad? Is Tony Abbott such a formidable opponent?
I’m not impressed by what we’ve seen of the Gillard government so far. We’ve seen the triumph of political expediency over good government. From her first day she’s left little doubt three running political sores – the mining tax, resentment of boat people and the vacuum left by Labor’s abandonment of its emissions trading scheme – needed to be staunched quick smart if the government’s re-election were to be secured.
But what hasty, amateurish patch-up jobs we’ve seen. Wayne Swan has fudged up figures purporting to show the revenue cost of the deal done with the three biggest mining companies was minor, whereas sharemarket analysts are saying the extra tax to be paid by the companies will be minor. Then we had the fearful muddle over the Timor solution the Timorese hadn’t agreed to, and now we’re getting the climate change policy you have when you don’t have a climate change policy.