Party Games: Elections are a game for stayers and we’re contractually bound to keep going

WITH 51 days spread before us, it’s time to take our first breather from this election campaign – sit down with a double espresso and wonder if we should take the weekend off.

Malcolm Turnbull all but exited stage Potts Point yesterday, cutting out from a media scrum at Emu Plains in Sydney’s west. Picture: Lukas Coch

WITH 51 days spread before us, it’s time to take our first breather from this election campaign – sit down with a double espresso and wonder if we should take the weekend off.

It’s a rhetorical question because this is a game for stayers and we’re contractually bound to keep going.

Malcolm Turnbull all but exited stage Potts Point yesterday, cutting out from a media scrum at Emu Plains in Sydney’s west after questions were raised about that time in September last year when Tony Abbott was slain in the Liberal party room.

The richest 4 per cent of account holders are up in arms over a winding back of tax concessions introduced when the Australian economy looked like Scrooge McDuck’s money-filled swimming pool.

The prime minister, already scheduled to dial it back and “make no policy announcements for some days”, then went off the formal grid and will presumably again raise his head today.

At Emu Plains, local member Fiona Scott was quizzed about how she voted last September – as a one time Abbott fan suspected of turning her coat – and it did not go well.

Meanwhile, there was a low altitude storm over the Budget superannuation changes where the richest 4 per cent of account holders – and the far too many who want to join them – are up in arms over a winding back of tax concessions introduced when the Australian economy looked like Scrooge McDuck’s money-filled swimming pool.

It’s never easy to explain superannuation moves but despite the brouhaha, the Coalition moving against the very wealthy part of its base is a good look as Turnbull promotes the notion he’s being fair.

There is a growing gap between Bill Shorten and (most of) the leadership and more than a handful of candidates and MPs. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

The greater fracture on policy is on the Labor side where nothing like enough attention is being paid to the growing gap between Bill Shorten and (most of) the leadership and more than a handful of candidates and MPs.

Last July Shorten roped in two militant Left unions – the CFMEU and the MUA – to change Labor policy to mimic the Coalition which made it easy to gather the numbers but not so when it came to bringing the hearts and minds along.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek and senior front benchers Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese either voted against the policy or sent in proxy delegates to do it for them.

There remain questions because Labor is not united. So far Shorten’s responses have not been satisfactory.

Originally published as Party Games: Elections are a game for stayers and we’re contractually bound to keep going