Posted by Following on from Ricardo’s post about an October election, the Fin reports this morning that:
Some in the government wonder why there was such a rush to announce the carbon price change and dental programs this week.
(One good reason would be that these were deals negotiated with crossbenchers and the Greens. The more involved in negotiations, the more likelihood they might leak).
This did not stop some pondering aloud whether the Prime Minister was being urged onto a war footing for an early 2012 election.
Labor’s fortunes seem to make that a crazy option. But the clouds are gathering: a cooling Chinese economy and increasingly difficult budgetary problems for whoever wins the next election.
Those budget problems include the potential need to sack more than 4,400 that they have done so far, as also reported this morning. That’s a bit of a problem for Labor given that a scare campaign over public service cuts is one of the few things they have going for it.
Also, a close watch of Gillard and Abbott shows that they are making an inordinate amount of announcements recently.
Gillard has announced Nauru, no carbon tax floor, a dental scheme and is due to announce a response to Gonski on Monday.
In a less high profile way, Abbott has announced a marine reserves private members bill, a review of Tasmanian shipping costs and a foreign investment policy.
Starting to look a lot like an election …
ricardian ambivalence 
A lot of problems with your figuring.
Look at money fr each financial year first.
The dental is self-funding when you take into account what the government will ( properly) cut.
Most of what you allege has in fact not been promised.
There has been nothing yet on Gonski.
Moreover it is easier to be rational AFTER an election and say contractionary economic policies is the last thing you need IF the economy is cooling.
That would be following Europe’s stupid example.
The AFR these days is as inaccurate as the Australian.
Bring it on! I can’t think of a better time to elect Tony Abbott.