The Big Issues facing the Opposition: How they're thinking in the engine-room!

The Blowfly is aware that behind the scenes in politics there is a veritable army of hard-working, well-meaning people.

Let’s imagine that you are the husband and wife team who, very deliberately, pull the strings of Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party.

Peta Credlin is Tony’s chief-of-staff and Brian Loughnane is the federal director of the Liberal Party.

During the term of this hung Parliament they have been second-guessing the Gillard government and attempting to position ‘their Tony’ for PM.

Tony Abbott’s ceaseless forays into the heart of Australian businesses for the evening ‘news-takes’ telling the small business sector about the pending doom about to befall them with the introduction of the ‘Carbon tax’ was undoubtedly the result of Peda Credlin’s detailed and inspired planning.

Brian Loughnane has also been around for a while and he knows the ropes.

During the last election campaign he reportedly gave instructions ‘not to check the assumptions’ to the WA auditors who were assigned the highly important task of costing the Coalition’s policies. Subsequently Treasury found an $11 billion ‘black hole’.

One might imagine that the Liberal Party is a permanent talking point in their house.
Let’s imagine that on their fridge is a small white board. They use this to empty their Liberal brains of questions that they believe might be pertinent to the quest to get Tony behind the levers of power.

This is how The Blowfly imagines the white board might look presently:
1. If Malcolm becomes the leader before the next election will our ‘NO’ strategy work for him?
2. Should Tony stay on as leader will he be perceived as a total drongo if he continues with the ‘NO’ strategy?
3. When should we start developing some policies for the next election?
4. Besides the repeal of the Carbon Tax legislation and the Minerals Rent and Resources Tax what other ideas do we have for policy initiatives?
5. How might we ‘save face’ if we have to jettison the repeal of these should our polling reveal it would be beneficial?
6. Given we now have a $70 billion ‘black hole’ with all the commitments Tony has given, do we simply pray for a miracle?
7. How is it humanly possible to develop policies to cover this ‘black hole’ without alienating the swinging voters?
8. Should we factor in a new $1 billion hospital for Andrew Wilkie’s electorate for the next election?
9. What is the most politically advantageous position the Coalition can take on global warming?
10. Should we include John and Janette Howard in our planning group for the next election?
11. Should we persist with the censure motions at Question Time or should we invest more time in developing penetrating questions to ask the Government?
12. What should we advise Tony to do with Joe?
13. Where do we want to take this country?
14. Is that important as long as we win?
15. Is there enough champagne in the fridge for New Year’s Eve?
16. What do we have to celebrate?

The words of Sam Goldwyn drift into The Blowfly’s small brain: “We’re overpaying them but they’re worth it”.