http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/opposition-leader-tony-abbott-gets-a-touch-of-f...IS this really what I want from an Abbott government? The same as Labor, only better?
The excitement among conservatives at the now near-certain defeat of the Gillard Government in September is cooling.
It is being replaced with the realisation that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is not promising big changes, social or economic.
He is instead doing a Kevin Rudd. Rudd campaigned successfully in 2007 as Liberal-lite - someone like John Howard, but fresher.
Likewise, for all his rhetoric, Abbott is campaigning as Labor-lite - without the stuff-ups.
Like Labor, Abbott promises no big changes to industrial relations policies, even though employers are screaming for them.
Like Labor, Abbott claims he believes in "the science" of global warming, even though the world hasn't warmed for at least 15 years.
Like Labor, Abbott backs the referendum proposal to recognise local government, although it will give Canberra more control over every town hall.
Like Labor, Abbott supports a referendum to recognise Aborigines in the Constitution, backing a race-based law that will merely divide us into tribes.
Like Labor, Abbott promises a big new tax - a rise in the Medicare levy.
Like Labor, Abbott will waste billions of dollars to cut our emissions without cutting the temperature. He'll just waste a few billion less.
Like Labor, Abbott will scrap the baby bonus, but will channel more money to a parental leave scheme. Weren't the Liberals opposed to such discrimination against stay-at-home mothers?
Like Labor, Abbott refuses to even consider privatising the ABC, despite the ABC killing Fairfax newspapers, particularly by giving away free the online services its competitors must sell to survive.
Doesn't he see the ABC is morphing into a modern Pravda - a state-backed media behemoth so far to the Left that 40 per cent of its journalists vote Green, says a University of the Sunshine Coast survey?
Labor's attacks on Abbott disguise this same-same.
Take its latest meme, that Abbott plans to "cut to the bone" government spending.
Not true, sadly. Last week, Abbott in his Budget reply speech promised a net saving of just $1 billion a year, when government outlays next financial year will soar to $391 billion and we face a deficit of $18 billion.
"Cut to the bone"? That's barely a scratch.
Labor's stunning incompetence has blurred what was once a key difference - the carbon tax.
Labor admits the carbon price, now $23 a tonne, will fall to $12.10 when carbon trading starts in 2015, thanks to a collapse in Europe's support for warming policies that hurt industry.
In fact, the price will almost certainly be less. So what's the big difference between a carbon price under Labor of, say, $5 a tonne, and Abbott's plan to scrap the whole sorry thing?
Likewise, how profound a difference will scrapping the mining tax make, now it's revealed as a bit of a dud?
As for the education "reforms" now promised by Labor, remove the redirected funding and they amount to just $200 million a year over the next four years. Big deal.
Exactly where are any big differences?
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