The campaign was a dog, but Tiny Abbott cops the fleas

NO matter what the underlying causes were for the Coalition defeat in Victoria, it is inevitable, and not entirely without basis, that Tony Abbott will be blamed.

Labor is already crowing, after a “toxic Tony’’ advertising campaign, and state Liberal MPs have been complaining for days.

The price of petrol in Victoria — 17c a litre less than it was when the Prime Minister introduced fuel excise changes — is one of several facts undermining state arguments of federal blame.

But these facts will make little difference.

Abbott himself used the first-term difficulties of the Victorian Coalition during a cabinet meeting in Melbourne just on a month ago to try to settle nerves in his own camp.

Inevitably, apart from the blame shifting, there will be parallels drawn between the first-term Coalition government in Victoria and Abbott’s own first-term problems.

There’s no getting away from it: the Victorian campaign may have been a dog, but Abbott’s stuck with the fleas.

Given the trouble Abbott has had in recent days dealing with a few of his own “barnacles”, it’s important he doesn’t try to argue against people’s lived experience of the Victorian election and instead tries to use the loss to his advantage.

He should accept the Victorian state collateral damage, recognise the difficulty the loss of a Liberal state government will create and deflect the myth-making and poor optics by taking decisive action federally.

If there’s no way to avoid being blamed for a loss, take what you can from it without trying to argue your way out of it.