An Extended Honeymoon

While I’m not really one for polling data, last week’s Newspoll showing Rudd ahead 73% to 9% (as preferred prime minister over Nelson) was pretty compelling. Polling – particularly phone polling 1000 odd citizens - is innately dodgy, but this time it’s reasonably safe to generalise that Rudd is flying and Dr Nelson is floundering. The Opposition Leader dismissed the numbers as evidence of an ‘extended honeymoon’ implying that voters were merely embracing the new face. Brendan should be so lucky.

Unfortunately for Nelson and his Liberal colleagues Prime Minister Rudd is turning out to be a better prospect that even his biggest supporters hoped for. Since coming to office he has issued a landmark apology to indigenous Australians, axed the unpopular Work Choices, ratified the Kyoto Protocol and is lobbying for a seat on the UN Security Council. In the few short months since parliament reconvened, Rudd has already filled in much of the pit of despair he inherited from his predecessor. This last fortnight has seen the PM climb even higher in my Presidential esteem, raising our international profile with a series of high profile meetings. He wants out of Iraq, deeper into Afghanistan, to free Tibet – and, hallelujah, to reopen the Republic debate (someone’s been reading my wish book again). Come week's end, he was doing material in Mandarin... the guy's in fire.

In light of all that Rudd has achieved in such a short time, it’s no wonder that Nelson is polling single digits and that the Opposition are languishing. Nelson is weak and downright abrasive at times. Speculation is rife about his ongoing leadership – not to mention the fate of former government double act Downer and Costello. The Libs, having been in power for so long, and led so decisively over that time, are all of a sudden lost in the woods. For Labors sake, and all of ours, let us hope that the Government continues to surge ahead, in the absence of a cohesive alternative government. There is still much to achieve – this honeymoon has a way to go yet.