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February 19, 2008
It's been an extraordinary day following Howard's End last night.
The poll we contemplated over breakfast this morning, conducted following the apology, was dreadful news for the Liberals and anyone still tinkering with the notion that Nelson is even remotely viable. The poor sod has the honour of being the first leader since Newspoll started to score a single digit of support. As Possum eloquently observed, it's partly indicative of the difficulties anyone leading the opposition will have to overcome.
Nelson had better hope that this Preferred Prime Minister rating has a lot of short term feedback caused from the Stolen Generation apology he made on behalf of the Opposition in Parliament, for if it is actually representative in large part of what is playing out on the ground with these twin Coalition support bases - the problem may not be Nelsons alone, but could simply be a sign of things to come for any opposition member that takes on the Leadership position.
The twin support bases being the silver spoon set and Howard's battlers.
Then shortly after lunch poor Julie Bishop was wheeled out to announce that the Coalition is backing Labor on AWAs. They'll keep niggling about extending interim agreements, but it must be killing The Rump (thanks Nan) to have to back down on the centrepiece policy of Howard's political life. One can only surmise that Bishop is being punished for something, or that Nelson doesn't understand that he had an opportunity to improve his single digit rating if he'd spun the back down properly. Someone ought to tell him that a fabulous hairdo does not a fabulous politician make.
For afternoon tea Chris Evans shared his concerns about ministerial discretion on immigration issues, observing that it's inappropriate for one human being to have the power to decide the fate of another. It inevitably results in stuff ups of the Cornelia Rau and Haneef kind, which tend to upset people previously under the impression that the rule of law trumps in this country.
For nibbles during the day we had Kevin Andrews spending $130,000 on news clippings following the Haneef debacle, and Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells alerting us to the unthinkable possibility that the new PMs pets could be fouling the lawns at the Lodge. Perhaps Kevin Andrews could be put in charge of the lawn problem. All that newspaper should be put to some good use now that he doesn't have to worry about monitoring the response to the abuse of ministerial discretion while he was in charge of immigration.
It would be an understatement to say the opposition hasn't been faring well. In a few months Labor has managed to undermine most of what fed Howardism, but Howardism still informs the worldview of The Rump, which is still the centre of gravity on that side of politics. There's an important distinction between Howard's personal support and Howardism which The Rump seem yet to understand - you won't get support for Howardism without Howard. Simple.
Meanwhile, the more they focus on Swan's knowledge of arcane economic notions, the more time Rudd has to whittle away at what remains of Howardism and their own battler support base. Perhaps their best option would be to install Andrew Bolt as leader and go for broke until Turnbull's had downward vernacular elocution lessons.
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Sorry to intrude 'something completely different' but I've just watched the tail end of the 7.30 Report on ABC TV and saw Peter Cullen the National Water Commissioner recommend, among other things, a 40% reduction in water entitlements for irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin as a matter of urgency.
I hope this grows legs.