Courtesy John Spooner and The Age

It's all out war all right. Not with guns and bombs but with 24/7 spin, obfuscating rhetoric and outright lies. Taking their cue from past successful Republican smear campaigns, Business and the John Howard Party are waging a relentless assault on Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Labor, and by extension, the people of Australia. As we know from past experience, they will use everything in their arsenal to hammer away at the fledgling courage of the awakening electorate. The Government's experience in scare campaigns points to an eventual triumph and the return before the election to a nation of sheep. And Kevin Rudd's recent contortions are not helping.

Yesterday, we were treated to an hysterical Peter Costello foaming at the mouth as he labelled Kevin Rudd a "socialist". Likewise, Little Johnny Howard spun a whopper when he responded to queries that he would embark on a spending spree by acting as if that was exactly what Labor did, but not him:

"I'm not going to spend like Labor state governments have done, and federal Labor governments have done in the past," he said. "I'm not going to send the budget into deficit in some kind of desperate attempt to buy favour."

He's good at that, at projecting what he does onto others.

Some anti-Labor trigger words meant to scare the bejesus out of the electorate are: socialist, union, union thugs, union bosses, the past, undermine, political self-interest, living in the past, and so on. Replace socialist with capitalist, the word union with business, leave the rest the same and you have great descriptors of the John Howard Party.

The triggers meant to cosset a benumbed electorate towards keeping the Coalition are a tape loop under the pillow of sound economic management, proper costings, sound economic management, substance, sound economic management, family values, and more sound economic management.

Both sides of politics are guilty of bypassing the question to hammer the other, but JHP henchmen are the masters. Mainly because they have nothing else on their plates but retaining power and serving business; whatever is good for the country can go to hell.

Tony Eastley, of ABC radio's AM, said this morning, in the segment, Labor attacks lack of information on water plan, "The Labor Party has attacked the Government for rejecting a Freedom Of Information claim on its $10 billion water plan. The massive infrastructure project has little detail given its size. So far only 22 documents covering the project have come to light. While the Seven Network sought all the documents relating to the plan, the Environment Department has denied its request."

Michael Vincent, then asks: "So what's in a diagram called 'Water Management' that is so sensitive it can't be seen by the public? That diagram is one of just 22 documents that relate to this radical, historic and expensive plan that was announced almost four months ago."

In the following segment, Malcolm Turnbull, the Minister for Water defends the plan. Read with nauseous awe his ability to sidestep Tony Eastley's simple question and flay Labor:

TONY EASTLEY: Why all the secrecy about this giant project?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well there is no secrecy about where the project is heading. What we're endeavouring to do is deal with the biggest water crisis in rural Australia we've ever faced in our history.

We're trying to get water right, and secure for the future. And there you have the Labor party, trying to undermine this historic plan, and trying to play politics.

TONY EASTLEY: Well, is it true then that there are less documents that for an average sort of house deal here, we're talking about 22 maybe 30 documents?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: This of course is the measure of the Labor party's approach to politics. They regard the more documents, the more piles of bureaucratic paper you have, the better the policy. This $10 billion plan, which brings the Murray Darling basin under one set of one government, which brings… which puts the sort of big money, billions of dollars, into fixing our inefficient irrigation systems.

TONY EASTLEY: I think they're interested in knowing how you came about to make that decision on spending $10 billion.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: The Prime Minister has laid it all out in his speech in the National Press Club in January. There are documents released which include a detailed table, showing where all the money is going to be spent. So much for irrigation efficiencies getting water to the farm, so much on farm, so much for metering, so much for the Bureau of Meteorology, so much for structural adjustment and buy backs, all that is laid out, Tony.

The reality is that this plan is vital to the water security of Australia. John Howard's trying to fix Australia's water scarcity challenge in rural Australia, and Anthony Albanese and Kevin Rudd are trying to wreck it.

Just in order to play politics, and that is a tragedy. If you are a farmer, or living in a town on the Murray River, looking at your water supplies dwindling, you'd be shaking your head at the cynicism and the political self interest of the Labor party as they try to wreck this great national project.

TONY EASTLEY: Why do you think a diagram entitled 'Water Management' would be so sensitive that it wouldn't be available under FOI legislation?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Tony, you're asking me to speculate. It is not the way this system works, this is not a political system.

TONY EASTLEY: But you would have seen that diagram, surely.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I may well have, Tony, but I have seen many documents in the course of this work and you know, this project has had input from so many different people in different ways.

It's been a… it's a vast piece of work, but you have to remember, we're living in the future, we're looking to the future. The Labor party is living in the past.

We are now in May 2007. We have been negotiating and dealing with the states in great detail ever since January. We've had meetings with Premiers, we've had many meetings with officials. The show has moved on, we're looking to the future.

Labor is grubbing around in the past trying to get a cynical political advantage, when they should be supporting a plan that will secure our water future.

And here all Tony and Labor and you and me, all we wanted to know was why the secrecy? At least Malcolm is gradually dropping that uppity intonation that made him sound like a Fifties Liberal.

Later, on The World Today, Joe Hockey hacked Labor every chance he could and did an admirable job of acrobatics over refusing to answer Alexandra Kirk's question over the dropping of the word "WorkChoices" in the latest round of taxpayer funded JHP propaganda:

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Well, Labor's polling of swinging voters is pointing to the unpopularity of your WorkChoice law. They're happy with Kevin Rudd's stance but the Prime Minister's predicting that'll change. Do you really think that more Government advertising will fix that for you when $44 million spent so far hasn't worked?

JOE HOCKEY: Well, Alexandra the Labor party and the trade union bosses are in the middle of a $100 million scare campaign against the current workplace relations system.

The same system that only today has helped to deliver increased earnings for all employees of around 4.9 per cent, the laws that are helping to deliver today a narrowing of the wages gap between men and women. And the same system that even the Melbourne Institute is saying is delivering higher dividends for people on individual agreements than people on awards or collective agreements.

Now, if you want to keep the economy strong, if you want to keep prosperity going, you cannot make up new policy with each media interview. And industrial relations is a key economic issue for the future of the country and Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are in a mess when it comes to industrial relations.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Don't voters think WorkChoices is unpopular? According to one coalition MP quoted in the paper this morning, WorkChoices is not a popular word; it's a damaged brand.

And is it just a coincidence that the rash of full-page newspaper ads in all the major newspapers last week advertising the new fairness test, didn't mention WorkChoices at all.

JOE HOCKEY: Well WorkChoices is the policy platform for the current system; the fairness test is a change to that platform to put in place a stronger safety net.

We will properly inform the Australian people in a very straight, non-spin way of the current system. Australians want to know where they stand in the current system. We will let them know where they stand in the current system.

And even in the face of a trade union and Labor party scare campaign on a scale we have never seen before in Australian politics, we will continue to try and properly inform the Australian people of where they stand in the current system.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Labor polling is showing that voters know or have a high recognition of the word "WorkChoices" and then a very negative response to it. Your polling would show the same thing, wouldn't it?

JOE HOCKEY: Well, we don't engage in push polling the way the Labor party does.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Would you re-insert the word "WorkChoices" into Government advertising?

JOE HOCKEY: Well, the amendments that we're making are not WorkChoices amendments. They are a change to the WorkChoices policy.

What Australians need to know is where they stand in the current system and that's what we're going to tell them about.

Breathtaking!

Unfortunately, Kevin Rudd seems to be doing his own acrobatics, reacting like a seesaw on eggbeater legs over everything the Government or business says. They must be enjoying making him jump and twist.

The Kevin Rudd who enjoyed "messing with John Howard's mind" has been replaced by a contortionist whose own mind is being messed with by the Master Messer. In the meantime, Julia Gillard is more or less holding the line. But unless Kevvy starts to come out fighting again, the droning voice of Miss Julia will start to irritate rather than reassure.

Kevin Rudd, this election is yours to win, but only if you stop vacillating. Act like a hero, goddammit!

-- Tommy Pendejo