Old Mother Howard went to the cupboard and ... found it bare

Minister Ian Campbell resigned despite the widespread acknowledgement that he’d done nothing wrong so as to intensify a political attack on Kevin Rudd; plans were announced to takeover the Mersey Hospital in Tasmania; Australian Electoral Commission plebiscites were announced to place pressure on the Queensland ALP Government’s plans for local council amalgamations.

A campaign was hastily ramped up for expanding nuclear power only to ramped back down on learning of the electorate’s reaction.

The only time I can remember when I had less knowledge of what excursions might turn up in the next day’s papers was during the Whitlam Government.

When insisting on staying on in the top job, Howard said there was much more he wanted to do, but when asked what it was, said there wasn’t time to say. Six weeks of campaigning didn’t improve the situation.

It is said that without vision the people perish. One interpretation of this Government’s political history is that without vision it has been forced to make promises it could not keep and take political risks it otherwise would not have been forced to take, to hang onto government.

If people can see their government constructively engaging the problems of the future, that greatly relieves the pressure on it to buy its next election victory with election promises it can’t keep - promises that is which taint the victory and make subsequent defeat more likely.

This happened in 2004 and in 1993 with Paul Keating’s L.A.W. tax cuts helping to seal his fate. It’s happening again.

Politics is about gaining and maintaining momentum. And to govern well and successfully one must not just win the next election but do so with enough in the tank to win the next.

Let's hope the incoming party of government has the ambition to learn these lessons.