Nasty, secretive Abbott government implodes

It can be no surprise to many who wake up today to see the Herald story focusing on a Fairfax-Nielsen poll that has the Labor Party running 52 to 48 2PP against a depleted Coalition. As the story points out, this bodes ill for Tony Abbott's attempt to repeal the carbon price laws, which are set soon to be taken to the Senate, a Senate where Labor and the Greens predominate. It looks like the laws will stay and that Abbott's promised double dissolution will not eventuate. Slow golf clap for Tones.

Elected at the start of September, the Abbott government has been grinding along like a steak mincer on mute, with ministerial instructions telling party members to vet all media appearances via the PM's office. As asylum seekers continue to arrive off the coast of Western Australia, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison routinely rolls out his military spokesperson to tell the electorate to shut up and make do with the meager snippets of information on "operational matters" the department sees fit to dole out to a carefully-listening public. Abbott has also become deeply embroiled in a couple of mini scandals: travel rorts for the first month or so of government, followed by a rift with the perennial elephant in the room, Indonesia.

Now the poll, which shows that it's crystal clear the electorate has gotten sick of the born-to-rule bully-boy Tony Abbott unquestionably is, and the message is that since he's so tight-lipped with information they're apt to be equally tight with their approval. Abbott's nasty, secretive government is rapidly imploding; it's almost unheard-of to see such low approval rates for a government so soon after an election. No wonder Tones is looking puzzled.