'Trust me - I'm from the Opposition'

But it matters not. These are fine sentiments all. I'm just not terribly clear about what they'll look like where the rubber hits the road.

How will the new elected Indigenous representative Indigenous body be structured and when will it commence operation? What will CDEP look like under a Labor government? And what is meant by the undertaking that the ALP will “explore options to leverage private sector finance” to overcome the chronic housing needs of Indigenous Australians?

If I was a lawyer (shudder), I'd be requesting “further and better particulars” about now.

The ALP's painfully slow progress towards Indigenous justice won't cost them many votes. Electors who see Aboriginal affairs as crucial probably tend to vote Green or Democrat and watch their preference trickle back to the Labor Party.

The ALP will always be seen to be more progressive than the government on Indigenous issues, but that's no great claim to fame. Once Labor has outflanked the conservatives with a few sweeping statements about “our First Australians”, there is little electoral incentive to move any further.

However, beyond the narrow confines of Indigenous Affairs, the ALP's “platitude politics” have been an electoral disaster.

So when we go to the polls this year, will the Labor brains-trust, which has steered the ship to a string of successive federal election defeats, toy again with a “small-target strategy”? Will we see another fiasco of last minute, too-clever-by-half deals, stitched up by pollies strung out on election adrenaline?

Or will the ALP break cover and clearly explain their detailed policy positions to the voters well before we go to the polls? That way the electorate could be given the opportunity to seriously consider Labor's claims to be the alternative government.

Now my narkyness may look premature. We'll doubtless be told that the Indigenous affairs policy document is not supposed to be about specific strategies. It will be called a visionary, broad-brush, scene-setting, headland-charting, environmental-scoping, framework document. They'll promise us the specifics in due course.

But for mine, “Trust me - I'm from the opposition” lacks a bit of resonance.