An unfortunate resurrection. You have to wonder whether John Howard yet realises he lost the last election. His intervention into the current debate with Kevin Rudd reads like a man who does not accept the verdict of the last election. The poor fellow still thinks he might win or something. In truth he got trounced and bobbing his head up and down as he has been doing of late will just add to the margin by which Labor wins again. If he really does have the best interests of the Liberal Party at heart John Howard should gracefully shut up and leave Malcolm Turnbull to lose on his own.

Making a good job of it. And isn’t he making a good job of doing that! Things just go from bad to worse for this Opposition. They are now left clinging to one hope — that by the time an election is held people will be worried about government debt. My guess is that Australians are not stupid. They sense that their country is doing better than most at the moment and will give Labor the credit for it. They will start worrying about debt when a government is forced to start paying it back and either has to raise taxes or cut benefits but that will not be until well after the next election.

First sign of a very little Caucus protest. Politicians are no different to the rest of us. When you take a benefit away form them they get angry. So it is with the changes to the printing allowance. The lads and lasses from marginal seats are extremely cross about the removal of a wonderful little perk which helped pay for their local direct marketing style election campaigning. The delegation which called on Kevin Rudd to change his mind was the first even timid sign of a Caucus protest since the election. While the polls show Labor well in front the PM can get away with his dictatorial style but the day will surely come when Rudd PM will have to take notice of his backbenchers with their self interested complaints.