The ministerial code of conduct is finally out, lobbyists will be registered, there’s a new era at the Reserve Bank and the already more than ample egos down at Treasury must now be pumped up close to bursting. Welcome to Kevin’s Age of Change.

Of course, anyone who was aged over 10 in 1996, knows anything about politics or isn’t still wearing a Kevin07 tee should realise that this sort of thing always happens with a change in administrations. It’s heralded as a bright new dawn – mainly by journos who have a big, easy story to write up.

There’s a glossy new government. So what? It’s how long the gloss lasts that is the real issue. The depth of the coat of polish is worth looking at, too.

Take the suggestions from new Special Minister of State John Faulkner that Labor will cut the $10,000 threshold that allows political donations to be kept secret. The original measure favoured the Coalition. The changes will favour the ALP. Unions don’t care who knows they give money to Labor. Companies wanting to do business with wall to wall Labor governments will be reluctant to give money to the Liberals if they end up on a list.

And how much is this embrace of Treasury and the Reserve Bank purely an insurance policy?

“Reserve Bank independence” was a handy way of passing blame for interest rate rises onto the RBA – for a while, anyway.

Labor knows that it faces interesting economic times. Invoking Treasury and their advice now makes it much, much easier to blame them if things go wrong.

The Rudd Government knows the importance of perceptions, and this is all about the optics.