… With the decks cleared of issues that might pop up to cause them grief, Bartlett and Labor are now readying for the next part of their re-election strategy.
This time it is the one perfected by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2007.
It dictates that, with unwanted extraneous issues out the way or “played dead” on, the Labor campaign can run uncluttered and unimpeded, focusing on just three or four single policy issues that are points of real difference to those of their Liberal and Green political opponents.
Think economic management. Think jobs and caring for recession-hit workers. Think battler Labor heartland roots, low-income housing, pensioner concessions, country kids, the plight of blue-collar workers and rural town help packages.
All sprinkled with liberal doses of local pork-barrelling using little amounts of money for small community groups to paint main streets, buy new equipment, hold church fetes and fund school excursions.
And that this will all be enough, come March 20, to wash away the unpleasant memories of the past four years of political scandals, pulp mill heavyhandedness, Labor mates, resigned ministers, court cases, belligerent premiers and politicians who put their mothers, sisters and assorted family on the public payroll.
