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November 26, 2011
Gillard's people skills have helped in ticking off two of the three nominated priorities when she became prime minister - a price on carbon and the mining tax. In all, 254 pieces of legislation have been passed by what Abbott says is a Greens-led government and in a Parliament that doesn't work. Abbott says his fight is to say no to what he calls the Brown-Gillard socialist government.
If Abbott has done a powerfully effective job of highlighting Gillard as the problem, then the passage of the carbon pricing and mining tax highlight the policy limits of Abbott's strategy of nay saying in the form of conservative populism.that Increasingly this involves ever more huffing and puffing and angry bluster--eg.,the 34 attempts to bring a censure motion against the Gillard Government.
Still, the Gillard Government is an unpopular one and there is no sense of revival in the political landscape. It survives as a minority government. Malcolm Farnsworth is right: little has changed. It is still is an open question whether the Gillard Government can rescue their dire standing with the electorate---to lift the ALP's primary vote to the mid-30s early next year.
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Gary
Completely off topic but I note the MDB Draft Plan has just been released.
I would greatly appreciate your analysis of it from a sustainable water POV and its political impact.