Tony wisely almost in hiding. With headlines like these being generated by the other side, little wonder that Tony Abbott has been taking things quietly. He didn’t need to say a thing to win the day.

It’s hard to tell which front page is more damaging. The report that three more former state Labor ministers are involved in yet another Independent Commission Against Corruption enquiry will surely lead some wavering voters to agree with Piers Akerman in the Daily Telegraph that: “If you create a cesspool it can only ever breed slime“. Try as he might to absolve himself from any connection with the damaged NSW Labor Party, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will find that some of the mud sticks when stories like these keep appearing:

  • From The Australian: “Disgraced ALP powerbroker Eddie Obeid claims he actively lobbied members of the powerful NSW Right faction to support Kevin Rudd’s push to become the party’s leader in 2006. His comments back up claims by senior Coalition figures that Mr Rudd owed his rise to power to the powerful and scandal-plagued Right faction of the NSW branch. But they were vigorously rejected by the Prime Minister’s office last night …”
  • David Penberthy in the Adelaide Advertiser: “It suits Kevin Rudd politically to posture as the angriest man in Australia about the squalid corruption revelations within the NSW branch of the ALP. It is too cute by half. The truth is that Kevin Rudd’s original creation and recent reincarnation could not have been possible without his own orchestrated and sustained suck-job to the people from the very branch he claims to despise.”

If you fancy something more serious for your political reading then click to Laura Tingle of the Australian Financial Review. Her “A pipeline of cash means election day is close” outlines the problems in providing gas to Gove and raises the fear that “it will be just too tempting for one political side or other to splash money around to sort this problem out”. It could prove, she argues, to be “a big test of all the ‘fiscal responsibility’ rhetoric we will hear from both political sides after Friday’s release of Labor’s economic statement.”

The pictorial week. A funny vest week for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd — a mixture of flak and fluoro gave him a win on our weekly photo opportunity scoreboard. It was the second clear weekly win for Rudd in a row.

The daily indicator dips for Labor. No surprise really that the market marked Labor down a little based on yesterday’s news stories.

This morning’s reading: Labor 26.5%, Coalition 73.5% – Labor down 1.2 pts on the day and up 6.2pts over the last 30 days.

News and views noted along the way.