What’s the Coalition doing right?

As those of you who have studied science will know, there is, of course, another explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs. That is the evolution of a new type of mammal - the rodent. This theory says the dinosaurs died out because rats began eating their eggs and their young, destroying the next generation in their nests.

I’ll leave it to you to determine which metaphor best suits John Howard - the fiery comet that promotes the survival of the fittest, or the humble rodent, gnawing away at future generations of potential Labor talent.

But the point remains.

Under these circumstances I think it’s amazing Labor has held it together as well as it has. But to get stronger it needs to adapt. Labor needs two things to become dominant again.

The first is a bit of luck. If only that comet’s orbit had been off by a thousand miles - nothing in terms of planetary space - we might still have the T-Rex instead of just the alligator. And the second is, it needs to adapt and evolve. It needs to move away from its ponderous and predictable strategies. It needs to hatch smarter offspring and put them into parliament. It needs better tactics. And it needs friends where it counts in the media.

Otherwise it may turn into one of those grazing herbivores instead of a creature able to dominate its environment and change the face of the political landscape once again.