TONY Abbott and his Government must be starting to feel the electoral pressure with the Opposition having opened up a two-party lead of some 10 points in the polls, with Bill Shorten as the Preferred PM, having dominated the media for the last several months with issues such as the shooting down of MH17, ISIS, APEC, the ASEAN Summit, freer trade deals with Japan and China, and the G20.
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On each occasion, Abbott and his team could claim "success", yet it hasn't reflected in the Government's overall electoral standing.
Although these events have served as an effective media distraction from our deteriorating economy, and from the Government's Budget and other policy difficulties, they are not seen as delivering any identifiable, immediate benefits to an electorate that is struggling with cost of living pressures, unaffordable housing, mounting job insecurity, and so on.
People don't necessarily believe the claimed benefits of the trade deals, which are spread out over a decade or so, and they wonder "at what real cost", as with the G20 "commitment" to an additional two per cent global growth over the next five years, when the financial news is dominated by the recent downgrading of global growth forecasts, news of Europe and Japan possibly going back into recession, China slowing, falling iron ire and coal prices, and a host of geo-political tensions.
To most, all this is "just out there", as they ring the power companies or their local Council to organise time payment on their mounting bills, or struggle to pay the school and childcare fees, or the car breaks down, or a rock goes through the windscreen, or their children or ageing parents need additional medical attention, or as they attempt to deal, daily, with a host of other possible hits on their financial survival.
If they are trying to build a business, they are probably sinking under the BAS, dealing with increasingly less generous banks, who nevertheless still want to tie them up by demanding layers of security and personal guarantees, chasing debtors to pay their outstanding invoices while keeping creditors at bay, limping from one cash crisis to the next.
Yes, well done Tony, but what about me?
With attention now turning back to domestic issues, the Government will have a particularly difficult row to hoe.
Hockey has to release the MYEFO - the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook - sometime in December, which will see him admit just how much the Budget deficit has blown out since May, reflecting the further collapse of commodity prices and our much weaker economy.
The Government will, of course seek to obfuscate, to blame the Opposition and the Senate for blocking key Budget measures, etc., rather than admit the paucity of some of these decisions, and their failure to explain or defend those decisions. However, as the Government has admitted on previous occasions, some of these decisions were not to take effect for some years, but this won't stop them attempting to blur the issue, passing blame as best they can.
While Hockey had threatened previously to make up any shortfall in the deficit by further expenditure cuts, he is now toning this down, mostly because he burnt so much political capital back in May, that the further electoral backlash could be devastating.
While we have got used to giving Governments at least two terms in this country, the tolerance of the electorate is waning fast. Napthine may be the first to demonstrate this by losing Government in Victoria on November 29, after just one term.