Despite victory, the booers and hissers spoil the party

Emerson, Lindsay Tanner and others have been the key thinkers in returning Labor to the political mainstream. Kevin Rudd, for all his political savvy, has been the beneficiary of their revisionism.

Now Labor has plucked the fruit of their labours. Even though the booers and hissers have barely condescended to notice.

But now that Labor has returned to the mainstream, it's even more important that the party moves on. Ordinary Australian families are concerned about their mortgages and their working conditions. But they also expect the new government to take the lead on issues of national significance.

Over 2007 Rudd has been very effective in distancing Labor from the politics of noisy minority interest groups. But in government Australians will expect positive policy directions as well, and Rudd has been hazy about these so far.

Broadband Internet access is not a substitute for schooling or innovation policies. Rescuing the lives of Australians in remote Aboriginal communities will require policy boldness, not the timidity Rudd evinced during the final days of the campaign.

Labor has laid the ghosts of the recent past. It now faces the much bigger task of moving beyond the slogan of "New Leadership" to actual policy leadership. It's not yet clear whether it has sufficient political resources to do so.