Presenting the government wish list

At the risk of being too repetitious, let me point out again that the Labor Government is not really in a position to govern. Tomorrow night Treasurer Wayne Swan simply will outline plans for action. The decisions as to what ends up in this year's Federal Budget were not made in the secrecy of the Labor Cabinet room. Cabinet just makes the recommendations that the Treasurer announces. The decisions will be made in the coming weeks within the offices of non-Labor Senators.
The prospect of Labor getting what it wants through this process are not encouraging. The Liberal and National parties are not interpreting their current poor standing in the opinion polls as a reason to abandon their predilection to oppose most things the Government proposes. Rather they are taking the view that the verdict by the public is best combated  by doing more of what the public does not fancy; instead of opposing less the decision appears to have been made to oppose more.
Hence on a range of the policies that Wayne Swan announces it will be up to the Greens, Family First and the Anti Pokies man to make the decision. They are now the people with the make or break power and Labor needs the support of all of them which will be ho easy feat when it comes to changing private health insurance and welfare payments.

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