Why has the Coalition not been able to capitalise more on the weaknesses in Labor’s campaign?
Well, yes, Labor has run a very poor campaign and has appeared very disunited, largely over the leadership and the way in which Rudd was cast aside. There have obviously been a number of leaks during the campaign that have been very embarrassing for the government. There’s also been the ghost of Mark Latham, the losing candidate of 2004 running around as a journalist and acting as a kind of reminder of a rather turbulent internal politics in the party. The unpopularity of state governments has been a problem as well, with some very unpopular governments, notably in New South Wales and to a lesser extent in Queensland. Clearly Labor has a number of weaknesses and all those factors have provided opportunities for Tony Abbott and the Coalition. But that said, for a government to be cast out in one term was always going to be very difficult and I would rather suspect that in getting as close as they have they will be reasonably pleased. There’s also this unknown quantity of the federal Lab
