A Parliamentary Role Reversal

Monday, 26th February, 2007  - Richard Farmer 
Oppositions normally welcome parliamentary sittings in the run up to an election because they offer the chance of sharing publicity with the government. This week things are different with the Prime Minister John Howard being pleased to get back in to the House of Representatives and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd wishing he could continue gallivanting around the country forever.
Rudd has surprised the Coalition by the skill with which he has generated his own headlines in the last week. He seemed up upstage Howard from Monday to Saturday, from Perth all the way to Sydney. Even vice president Dick Cheney waving Australia good bye with his remark that the American alliance would not be weakened by a pullout from Iraq was giving more points to Labor.
Thus this week in the Parliament we will see a Government desperately looking for diversions that will tarnish the nice guy image of Mr Rudd. Any subject will do even if it rebounds a little on the government itself. A public thinking "a pox on all your houses" is far better at this moment than a public which is attracted to Labor’s fresh face. So the bullies on the government side will be set loose to see how their opponent reacts to continuous verbal abuse and name calling.
It will not be an edifying spectacle during question time but it will have an important bearing on how this election year plays out. If Rudd can resist the taunts, like he largely did during the last House of Representatives meeting week, the government will know it really is in serious trouble. That is when we can expect to start reading those stories about worried back benchers wondering if they did the right thing in telling Peter Costello to stop going on about being the right man to lead them on the next polling day.

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