Never mind the leadership, what about the Opposition?

Abbott may have saved the Liberal Party, but now he has to come clean with the electorate about not only what his government will do for Australia, but also articulating what a government cannot and should not do.

This is a difficult task because oppositions cannot be expected to develop policies with the same detail as a government. Oppositions lack the resources of government. More than that, policy is not just about tackling problems, but is itself part of the politics, one of the weapons and props used to differentiate your party from opponents, to respond to competition, to stake out policy ground, and of course, to win votes.

So to reveal too much policy detail, too early could be tactically inept, allowing an incumbent government to respond too easily, to steal the ideas and to criticise proposals thus neutralising the opposition's political appeal.

What we should expect from an opposition is a clear articulation of the key policy areas deemed important, an outline of the principles that will drive their policy actions and some desired outcomes. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Though the yapping dogs of the Opposition still bark too stridently, the just released, Our Plan: Real Solutions for all Australians although dismissed by one long time commentator as lightweight without costings, is probably the best you can expect from an Opposition. At 50 pages long it can hardly be described as trite. It outlines priorities, principles and specific proposals. Compared to some of the policy documents (or non-policy documents) released by the current government recently, it is performs favourably.

Certainly, Abbott and the opposition must continue to be a critic of the government, but in the current circumstances and so close to an election it needs to get away from the vitriol of politics and focus on the issues that should drive the national agenda.