All political parties need to very careful with the old easy sword called "needed change". The people while not necessarily aware of the shallowness of the new paint , can still smell a rat when it comes to sussing what's really behind "the grand imperative and need for change ".
The temptation of new Labor to change direction is a strong one ( because it has great appeal to many) , but to actually commit to it is not one that is "necessary" ( after all its too easy to gain a sense of momentum ,purpose and neccessity from the mere appearance of "change").Think of the nature of normal progress - reform not revolution .
Surely Julia's decision to talk about a new place for detention centres this week was a case in point - short term appearance largely for effect and medium term crash due to evident instability of mind and commitment -when the press ask whether the change is rooted in anything but more hot air politics. ( East Timor refugee camps)
Bask in being representatives of stability - as long as you are!
Bill Shorten's use of the word "innovative" (QandA last week )( A safer word for change ) is symptomatic, not of his being on the right side of his earth shift (between conservatives and radicals), but of being clearly down the crack in between.
Its very easy too to allow the importance of a marginal argument to cloud the unintelligence of it - clever polys may be rewarded for saying nothing important about such matters . After all, while many an election is won on the margins, your smart arse ( and often overly cynical ) advisors often never know where new cracks can appear.( eg the strong swinging Christian vote that helped Labor get into power) In times of uncertainty and blatant cynical denial by the leading reactionaries , remember that to encourage good sense is best ; if you are too cynical to believe in all those that seek to do good , try remembering all the intelligent people on all sides of politics who you can alienate by trying to jump cracks . Marriage , schooling choice and Self Care may be mundane. but they are the hard freedom stuff on which our democracy is built and if government and their increasingly dopey bureaus think they are going to supplant the private interest in this - we all know what will happen. We will stop paying them to play with serious matters of everyday common sense that have been the private right of choice before the Labor nanny state politics moved in . Its a power game yes, but how hard is it for the liberals to win if they just focus on the nanny state of Labor politics in practice .
If elections are also won by the encumbents losing : (losing faith) ( lost trust) , the conservatives need to demonstrate that they are not cynically standing too close to cracks and , infact encourage people to live and think in the many safe places some distance away .Trust is important to demonstrate and you don't do it by changing everything too often .
besides if your world view is in ecomia you'll know there are more cliffs on the edge than in the centre.
