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High Court Decision Vital to Beazley's Chances

Friday, 5th May, 2006

One of the problems of being an opposition in politics is that if you come out with a good idea early enough to make a really positive impression on public opinion the government can take away the advantage by stealing it before polling day.

The beauty of industrial relations for federal Labor is that the good idea is one that the Coalition cannot steal because they created it.

Vote for us and we will repeal the draconian labour laws of John Howard is a simple message for Kim Beazley and he has plenty of time to keep scaring people with real and imagined horror stories about the legislation's consequences.

The government, on the other hand, does not have sufficient time for its new laws to be judged purely on their merits; 18 months will not be long enough for reality to blunt a scare campaign even if there really is nothing for workers to be concerned about.

The big obstacle to Labor developing industrial relations fears into its winning message is the High Court. A declaration by the Court that the legislation is unconstitutional would effectively remove it as an issue.