Australian election knife-edge
Polling shows that today’s Australian election is a neck-and-neck contest between Labor and the centre-right Liberal Party. Even if Tony Abbott, the Liberal leader, doesn’t quite make it to become Australia’s next Prime Minister, this has been a striking turnabout for him and his party.
Some experts attribute this revival of Ozzie centre right fortunes to the modernising strategy Abbott and his tight-knit clique of advisers have followed since he took over as leader. “The break-through came when we made it clear we no longer believed in our traditional agenda” explained one Canberra insider yesterday.
“By ditching that old “right wing” agenda that used to focus on immigration, lower taxes and smaller government, we’ve stormed ahead with folk who’d never vote for us anyway”.
Instead, the closed clique of Canberra advisers decided to put tackling climate change at the centre of their agenda - and have seen a sharp increase in the Liberal's appeal as a consequence, think some.
Arch modernisers have also put special focus on community engagement. “We’ve been sending teams of our activists out to Fiji to teach the kids ping pong. It’s win-win. They get to improve their forehand and back spin. In doing so, we get to show how we can make a difference in key suburban constituencies in Sydney and Melbourne, and maybe even in Broome, too. We hope” explained one.
Faced with the most hopelessly divided, incompetent and badly led Labor party in a generation one key strategist explained “If we don’t win, we’ll focus on making the AV electoral system the issue. We will demand a referendum on adopting first-past-the-post, rather than face up to why it is we stuffed up”.