PM Gillard's achievement in winning every vote in the House of Representatives over the last two years has been truly extraordinary.
I like many others didn't believe her Government would survive until Xmas 2011, let alone head into 2013 just a few poll points behind the LNP.
Not only has Gillard succeeded in retaining the support of the Greens and independents, she has also won LNP support for some very big pieces of legislation.
Malcolm Farr has pointed out that the reality of the last week of Parliament in 2012 was not a Government mired in scandal and controversy as the LNP and the Australian newspaper would have us believe.
Substantial events of the week included agreement on a management plan for the Murray-Darling Basin, a quest which is almost as old as Parliament, and steps to create a National Disability Insurance Scheme, a plan once considered unachievable.
In any week, and not just the last, these would have been important signposts of progress benefitting the Australian people.
The really shocking news is that many, if not most, of the advances made by the Parliament on behalf of the nation were bipartisan decisions. The minority Government needed the support of the Opposition to get through its biggest legislative projects.
Of course, this reality is way outside Abbott's narrative about a hopeless government getting nothing done and as his little mate Alan Jones says 'destroying the joint'.
Faced with the prospect of Gillard getting applause for some very considerable policy and legislative achievements, and sailing into the new year with wind in her sails, Abbott did the only thing he could do - he went negative big time.
Abbott's daring in playing the slush fund card has to be fully acknowledged. The guy's got chutzpah in spades.
Because Abbott's slush fund issues are much bigger, and far more recent, than Gillard's.
Of course, our friends in the media have amnesia, real or feigned, when it comes to Abbott's past.
Luckily for us Margot Kingston has returned to journalism to remind us all.
Her piece is a must read. If anything warrants a judicial inquiry, it is Abbott's involvement in the laughingly titled Australians for Honest Politics slush fund. Who put up the money? Why did Abbott refuse repeated Australian Electoral Commission requests to declare the sourses of these funds? Why did he lie?
Anyway, who cares about either slush fund event? In the long run it is policy and legislation that matter.
This year we have seen a feast of it. Carbon tax, mining tax, national disability insurance scheme, Murray Darling Basin Plan and much more.
Support it or not - there is a big policy program there.
One of the biggest we've seen.
Don't be fooled by the talk of discord and conflict put forward by the likes of Tim Soutphommasane, like many in the media he has confused short-term political tactics with a longer-term policy reality.
Make no mistake - much of what Gillard has put in place in her two tumultuous years as PM will be shaping this country, perhaps in modified form, for many years to come.
Update 1: Essential poll says Gillard winning on AWU scandal
Nice piece Trevor.
Posted by: Margokingston1 | 06 December 2012 at 03:48 PM