Lyn,
The editorial in today's AFR is equally critical:

Needless to say, overflowing coffers are no guarantee of good policy making--quite the opposite.The government's hit and run approach to federal-state relations is proof of this.

And:

Howard's direct funding of hospitals, medical technology, school buildings, technical colleges, universities and the threat of a federal takover of ports will not yield the big productivity gains that a coherent national plan to drag all these services into the 21st century could. That is what is lacking.

The editorial concludes by saying that, by abdicating their responsibility to lead the nation in making federalism work better for the benefit of ordinary people, Howard and Costello are leaving the way open for Rudd to seize the opportunity.

My judgement is that Rudd's already seized that opportunity firmly. He is working with the states in continuing competition reform from where Keating left off.

In terms of electoral strategy I guess that Howard has little choice to ramp up the conflict. He's been backed into a corner by Rudd and the states working co-operatively on this and that, and so he's had to come out throwing punches left right and centre.

Lyn,
Howard looks like some drunken sailor promising all the girls in each port big presents. Since he then leaves the port he doesn't have to actually spend anything. So he looks to be a good boy fiscally.

Neat seduction trick.

Gary,

There is a whopping big opportunity here for Rudd to work with the states against Howard on the big picture. If the money men at the AFR are unimpressed, Howard is undermining the supporters of his own credentials. Nuts. Where's the logic in that?

Nan,

The trouble with the seduction trick is that it only works on some of the chicks some of the time. It's only really effective if you can actually produce the odd box of chocolates. Meanwhile the girl in question has influential friends and rellies telling her to beware of drunken sailors.

Unless of course she conforms to the bimbo stereotype, in which case friends and relatives get to say "told you so" later on.

Either way the influential friends and relatives live to tell the tale.

Lyn,
My rellies in Davenport say the seduction worked a treat. He's such a nice man, a real charmer. He charmed the rellioes and then listened and understood the girl's deepest needs as well as her wants. There was no need for chocolates. He saved her from a fate worse than death.

They are waiting for the oh so sexy and human, all to human, Tony Abbott to bring those specially gift wrapped chocolates that a girl desires and deserves.

Lyn
the AFR crowd are policy and governance wonks.They want economic reform so business and Australia can flourish and prosper in the global market place. Hence the need for a consistent national regulatory framework to co-ordinate major (national) infrastructure investment.

Howard doesn't care about policy during an election and Costello is hostile to the CoAG (co-operative federalism) process.

Will the states deliver on what the AFR reckons the nation needs? Alan Mitchell, the economics editor of the AFR, acknowledges that the states are now committed to building a national regulatory regime on a co-operative basis. His scriticism is that history shows that this could be a frustratingly slow and problematic process.

Mitchell's solution? Keatings, suprsingly. A more active leadership role by the commonwealth in which money is exchanged for reform by the states. That was how National Competition policy worked. It is also what Bracks and Brumby in Victoria want.

Nan,

That's pretty depressing. It's interesting though, how Howard has achieved that hero-on-a-pedestal status that Labor is so often accused of doing with its own leaders.

Sexy human Abbott. Ew.

Gary,

So they're not impressed with either the prime minister or his replacement? That's even worse.

The AFR people must be stuck between loving the IR stuff and loathing the aspirational nationalism stuff. Have the Libs wedged their own supporters?