by:Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
ANOTHER day before an election - one that Julia Gillard will contest as Prime Minister - has been won in western Sydney.
But it means little for tomorrow or next week and even less about what happens after the September election. For a government despairing about its assumed defeat and consumed with changing leadership scenarios, the western Sydney sojourn appears to have bought more time.
While politicians complain publicly about the "blizzard" of opinion polls distracting people from real issues, there's little doubt that much of what Labor MPs are doing is predicated on public opinion polling and "tipping points" past which the Prime Minister can't survive. Nor is there little doubt much of what is happening is being poll driven to the lowest common denominator.
There are signs of speedy appointments and policy thresholds to be crossed early as ministers become rushed and distracted
The simple facts are that Labor's primary vote remains disastrously low six months from an election; satisfaction with Gillard and Tony Abbott remains low; Gillard and Abbott are close as preferred prime minister and Kevin Rudd is a popular threat to both.
The latest Newspoll suggests Gillard's anti-foreign worker rhetoric, condemned by so many as counter-productive and damaging in the Asian century, has achieved exactly what it was intended to achieve: a lift in the polls. It is a lift that may insulate the Prime Minister for another crucial week of parliament that gets her to the budget and beyond, but the cost of buying space day by day will still have to be met after the election no matter who is elected.
The long-term damage to Australia's reputation over Gillard's attacks on foreign workers remains in place, doubt about her judgment intensifies, distortion of good policy and process is more pronounced and ministers and MPs continue to be absorbed by the never-ending saga of Gillard versus Rudd. Day by day, whatever it takes.
