Queensland election 2017: Tony Abbott has lessons for Labor

BY FOCUSING on Tim Nicholls’ unpopularity, Annastacia Palaszczuk could be making the same mistake Labor did when it wrote off Tony Abbott.

Tim Nicholls’ numbers might be abysmal, but they’re much the same as Abbott’s were before his 2013 election win. Picture: AAP/Glenn Hunt

TONY Abbott could teach Annastacia Palaszczuk a thing or two.

Those lessons don’t relate to Abbott’s ill-fated period as prime minister, obviously, but his time as opposition leader.

Federal Labor underestimated Abbott from the start. They convinced themselves that the man they mocked as the “Mad Monk” was unelectable. How wrong they were.

While many voters held their nose when they backed Abbott in 2013, the rot from the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd years meant Labor was beyond redemption.

By hitching her wagon to Tim Nicholls’ unpopularity, the Queensland Premier may be making the same mistake.

Nicholls’ numbers are abysmal, worse than Palaszczuk’s and Campbell Newman’s before their successes.

However the Opposition Leader’s numbers are much the same as Abbott’s before he won.

Steven Wardill’s election playlist:

The Government’s “cuts, sack and sell” mantra and its targeting of Nicholls over his time as Newman’s treasurer have spawned clever ads and would have been devastatingly effective during past polls.

But in an environment where voters are over politicians playing politics, Labor risks appearing like its fighting the last election and has nothing new to offer.

Palaszczuk’s policy-lite approach hasn’t helped. Instead, Labor has shoved full-frontal political assaults down people’s throats right when there’s no appetite for it.

What’s worse has been Labor’s trouble-prone campaign so far. It’s been a microcosm of the melodrama from the past three years: a candidate sacked at the start, indecision over big decisions, backflips and rogue behaviour, with few new ideas in between.

Remember Kevin Rudd’s chaotic 2013 campaign that was supposedly all about jobs?

No consistent message, decisions on the run, fights among staff, short-lived scare campaigns, and a cynical move to parachute in former premier Peter Beattie.

And it all occurred amid a pervading “cuts, cuts, cuts” mantra against Abbott.

It’s starting to sound eerily similar, isn’t it?

Originally published as Queensland election 2017: Tony Abbott has lessons for Labor