Deeply off the Record

Laura Tingle’s Friday AFR Canberra observed column is worth the $3 alone.

In this week’s column she says that unless the remaining seats fall noticeably in favour of the Coalition (I think she means 74/71) their strategy is to hand the “poisoned chalice” to Labor.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s approach this week reeks of this, she says.

Armed with the support of News Ltd, which did everything in its power to get the Coalition into power this time around and which is now already campaigning for a fresh election, the Opposition thinks it would be likely to win another election held in the next six months. (Emphasis added)

Discredit and destabilise,

knowing you also have an extra problem, which is that your election costings don’t add up, leaving your economic credibility vulnerable.

She thinks there are “profound problems”, both in the costings as such and their politics.

She cites the release timing, hidden away late one afternoon. Also when you start playing with the contingency reserve it spells trouble, she says. Moreover there are unexplained political nasties hidden away, like the $1.2bn claimed saving in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. Present yourself as the stable option and emerge in a new political landscape.

One problem with an early election is that the party coffers are bare.

Labor, she says, is trying to form a minority government to buy the time “to atone for its sins and rebuild confidence.”

In any event there is an opportunity to “refresh politics”.

…whatever happens, the impact of a pause in the hostilities should not be underestimated.