The LW media which is most of the Australian media

...in my opinion anyway.

First and foremost, last election was a rejection of the dysfunctional labor government, not an endorsement of the coalition as an alternative government.

Secondly, labor have already renewed and given the public a 'fresh slate' - far more quickly than I think anyone predicted. This is in no small part to Kevin Rudd's recent announcement that he will retire. With both Gillard and Rudd gone, Labor under Shorten is already making great strides as projecting themselves as "reborn out of the ashes" - helped greatly by the fact that all but one senior minister retained their seat. In addition, the largely theatrical "grassroots" leadership ballot was a propaganda coup for labor IMO - even though the "grassroots" was overruled - it has helped (rightly or wrongly) re-image labor as more transparent, less factionalised, and less beholden to the "faceless men" - basically the number one thing that the public hated about labor during Gillard's term.

Thirdly, and ironically, after the years of negative campaigning and three word sloganeering, Tony Abbott may have created a media trap for himself. No opposition leader has better utilized the 24 hour media cycle than Tony Abbott - but this is already coming back to bite him. Its not just that his rhetoric while in opposition on boats, budget and debt are at odds with what he is doing on those issues now that he is in government, but the new 'frenzied' media culture that he created, is only too willing to shine the spotlight on these inconsistencies. And the best thing for labor, is that Tony Abbott gets shown in a negative light, while not even having to be the negative ones.

I'm not saying the coalition government will be particularly bad, or that they will be making complete howlers, but rather the atmosphere at the last election was more about getting rid of a government - not about providing a great opportunity for the coalition - once in government - to prosper at it. Basically, the cards had been stacked against a successful Abbott government even before the election, and this has only been enhanced by the successful rehabilitation of the labor party as a viable alternative government.

longweekend58 wrote on Nov 29^th, 2013 at 3:35pm:


What short-sighted rubbish. "old" labor would have rolled over and died regarding the carbon pricing - and thats what everyone expected them to do. New and vitalised labor shocked everyone by promising to stick to it. This was a visionary decision - not just environmentally, but economically as well. When the international community moves to a global ETS, and the business community is begging the government to jump on board, public will start wondering "what was all this scrap carbon pricing malarchy all about??" In reality, 'axeing the tax' only made sense in the context of "Juliar" and the alleged broken promise. It was all about trust in government, nothing to do with good economic and environmental policy.

The electorate - and history - will reward Bill Shorten for his vision.

3 years ago, the lied-to public wanted to skewer Labor over the carbon tax and 3 years later did exactly that.