Rudd government walking both sides of the street

The Rudd Government is starting to position political discourse in such a way that it becomes the "sensible centre" of Australian politics, by sending out different messages to different audiences.

As noted yesterday, Kevin Rudd took the opportunity in The Age/SMH to again attack "neoliberalism" as the source of the nation's woes, and his own government as the compassionate alternative. Railing against neoliberalism does not win a lot of votes in marginal seats, but keeps the left-leaning middle classes happy and has the added virtue of sending The Australian's opinion writers into paroxyms of anger and furious rage. The fact that their only readers these days may be the left-leaning middle classes, who continue to feel the comfort of having The Australian to hate as a reminder of the good old, bad old days of evil John Howard, needn't matter.

Meanwhile, his Employment Participation minister Mark Arbib can rail against young people being "job snobs", speaking the language that Today Tonight viewers in marginal seats readily respond to, and stealing the clothes of their political opponents such as Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott.

I think the planning for a Federal election in early 2010 may have already begun.