The year 2011 will not go down in history as one of the better years politically. The Brown/Gillard government limped along aimlessly bringing in Greens legislation like the carbon tax which was violently opposed by the vast majority of the population. Stupid nonsense like poker machine reform was floated and still threatens to become law, Craig Thomson was mired in scandal and was protected by the Labor party which would have been bounced onto the opposition benches if a by-election was held. By years' end the party of corruption and shonky dealings had solved that problem by seducing Liberal turncoat Peter Slipper into becoming speaker, thus giving Labor a two seat buffer. Like it or not, we are stuck with the Gillard government for at least the next 18 months.
The opinion polls were diabolical for Labor during 2011, at one stage giving the Liberals a 62-38 two party preferred lead. Gillard and Labor managed to claw back support somewhat during the latter part of the year with her cosying up to foreign leaders, but all those gains were wiped out dramatically in December following the corrosive gay marriage debate and the hijacking of the Labor conference by the issue along with uranium mining at a time when the rest of the world was dealing with a new Global Financial Crisis. The large photographs on the front pages of newspapers of Finance Minister Penny Wong and her lesbian lover along with their newly born illegitimate IVF baby were also extremely damaging for Labor. Indeed, the only thing remarkable about the backlash over these events is that Labor's ratings didn't drop a whole heap more.
We can't really make spot-on predictions about politics, but the professional clairvoyants have again predicted that Tony Abbott will be rolled as Liberal leader and be replaced by Malcolm Turnbull, undoubtedly the worst opposition leader in history when he last held the position during a period where Kevin Rudd was allowed to become the most popular prime minister since Federation, even overtaking Bob Hawke. Labor experienced a honeymoon period of over two years as the Libs experimented with warm and fuzzy left wing leaders Turnbull and Brendan Nelson before they realised that aping Labor was not the way to go, and that the public wanted a centre right leader who would again connect with traditional, mainstream conservative Aussie values. Tony Abbott was able to turn things around and put the Liberals in front within weeks of becoming Liberal leader, and going back to a failed experiment would be handing the Gillard government reelection next year on a silver platter.
2012 is the year the hated carbon tax comes into effect and the real test will be whether the Liberals are able to keep the public anger over Greens-led massive cost of living rises alive until polling day or whether the public will be beaten into submission with a weary sense of resignation North Korea style.
It is to be hoped that an election will be held during 2012 to bring the agony of the Brown/Gillard government to an end. Unfortunately that looks unlikely. There will be a few political highlights, however. Labor will be swept from office in Queensland and with the renewed swing to the Right, the likelihood of anymore misguided Greens-led "reforms" might be minimised. We live in hope. The only regret about the present situation is that we can't just skip this whole year and much of the next and fast forward to election day 2013. Then it really would be a Happy New Year.
