Have the horses moved to the enclosure?
There are small signs that the government has focused on the election campaign for 2007.
On the Treasury benches, the Ministers for Trade and Transport have done a job swap. The ostensible reason was to give Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile more time at home to focus on domestic (National Party) issues. Labor cynics have painted the move as distancing Vaile from the AWB scandal.
The Government is keen to polish off the rough edges of Work Choices, its industrial relations legislation. Last week a set of amendments prevented the more excessive misuses. Employees must now apply in writing before their annual leave can be cashed out. Employees can not have their pay docked when they take sick leave, or if they could not give advance notice or provide a medical certificate when ill. As is the way of things, what the Government has described as fine-tuning, the Opposition has described as an admission of failure and a vote-grab.
Another development is that many Ministers have got themselves a web site with a personalised URL. Let’s work our way through the Cabinet. Completed sites include: John Howard, Mark Vaile, Warren Truss, Tony Abbott, Amanda Vanstone (who uses the surname only URL approach), Brendan Nelson, Ian MacFarlane (who has an MP in his URL so that people do not mistake him for the Reserve Bank Governor), Kevin Andrews and Julie Bishop. Sites under construction include: Peter Costello, Philip Ruddock and Mal Brough,
Alexander Downer was beaten to the URL by his opponents (Google cached here). Interestingly, I could not find a personalised URL for the Information Technology Minister, Helen Coonan.
There does appear to be a certain electoral frisson in the air.