The Limits Of Hubris & The Sulkin' Culkins

THE government's backdown and spin doctoring on the question of carers, pensioners and the budget represents a good little victory for the Opposition. For months Labor has taken what should be a cooly prudential concern about inflation and turned it into a boogeyman. The political purpose of the spectral scaremongering is twofold: first, to sell the idea that Rudd Labor intends to be conservative moving forward into its first year in office; second, to imbue a new regime in search of an historical raison d'etre with a salvational mythology. The carer PR disaster - one that may inaugurate the ironic theme of Kevin Rudd's Brutopia - was beneficial insofar as it demarcated boundaries for what a still honeymooning government believes it can get away with. Flagging the possibility of making life harder for the vulnerable while swanning around the Solomons and Papua New Guinea - being feted in the latter country for letting bygones be bygones on the case of a man long wanted on child-sex charges - crossed the line.

If the government has been forced to acknowledge the limitations of its electorally modest mandate, the Coalition is being forced - no less compellingly - to acknowledge how ruthlessly truncated is patience and understanding for a new and struggling leader. Quite simply the Liberal Party in particular and the Coalition in general have bungled the transition to Opposition. A strangely Dylanesque Barnaby Joyce is for once on the money when he advises figures like Peter Costello, Alexander Downer and Mark Vaile to please get out of the new one if they can't lend a hand. That might be tough on Costello in particular - who did at least formally announce his intentions - but the fact is he is too big and confidence-inspiring a player to remain on the bench for a full term. Some days it's like the film Home Alone. Christopher Pyne dismisses a merger with the Nationals, as if he'd been left in charge inadvertently. Brendan Nelson backs the possibility. Meanwhile, the Wet Bandits join the case - or should that be case the joint?