A disastrous Newspoll for both Labor and Kim Beazley in The Australian today – along with a nice photo and puff piece on AWU secretary Bill Shorten.

There’s also more on Labor ructions in Shorten’s home state of Victoria, including the preselection threat to little known Senator Gavin Marshall.

Victoria, as ever, is a hotbed of Labor intrigue. According to The Oz,
Shorten has passed the “ticker” test – and there’s even a Bob Hawke
comparison thrown in for good measure. And there are a few more Labor
saviours from Victoria lining up for a dip in the River Jordan in the
hope that a dove appears over their heads.

But are things that bad for Beazley? The figures aren’t good – but
we’re not exactly rushing to the polls at the moment. The Government is
either divided or wearing heat over industrial relations and Telstra –
the polling on the Telstra privatisation is lousy for the Libs. Now is
the time for Beazley to take a low profile and let the Government wear
the heat.

And Beazley isn’t just sitting back with the latest volumes of military
history at the moment. He’s at work – quietly. Bernie Lagan’s tome on
Iron Mark, Loner, has told us of the extent of the chaos in the
ranks of the opposition, how basic internal communications and systems
broke down. Beazley and team are putting them together again.

You can’t win back a government marginal if you don’t have a Labor Senator allocated to work it.