Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is beginning his election campaign before the starter pistol is fired with a tour of the country to promote the coalition’s “real solutions for all Australians”.
Mr Abbott began his mini-campaign with a rally for about 300 party faithful in western Sydney on Sunday.
But Labor said the coalition plan contained no real policy or detail of budget cuts needed to make the promises come true, and was sceptical about how long Mr Abbott’s positive transformation would last.
In the heartland of Howard’s battlers Mr Abbott appeared keen to ditch the ‘Dr No’ tag Labor had given him, talking up his “normal” family life.
“We’ve struggled with the school fees, we’ve struggled with the hospital bills,” he told a US presidential-style rally.
“We know what it is like not to be sure whether you’ve got enough money in your bank account at the end of the month.”
He described Australia as “a great country, a great people, shame about the government”.
The next federal poll would be the most important election in a generation, and 2013 the year Australians rediscovered “their best selves”.
“We have to have more freedom, that’s what we have in the marrow of our bones, that’s what’s in the DNA of the Liberal Party,” Mr Abbott told the rally.
The opposition leader outlined in general terms the coalition’s intention to cut taxes, abolish the carbon and mining taxes, boost productivity and slash red tape.
He also touched on his “fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme” and border security.
Appealing to the key western Sydney voters, Mr Abbott promised to get the WestConnex motorway linking western Sydney and the CBD up and running within 12 months of coming to power.
The coalition’s 50-page policy document, Our Plan: Real Solutions for all Australians, launched on Sunday, commits $10 billion to infrastructure projects in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
It is stamped “fully costed – budgeted” throughout, although there is no detail about where the few specific dollar figures mentioned would come from.
Senior Labor minister Anthony Albanese called on the opposition to detail before the election what cuts it would make instead of leaving it up to a post-poll commission of audit.
He said previous attempts to make over Mr Abbott had lasted just a day or two.
“What Tony Abbott has done is just reinforce, by having a so-called policy launch without policies, that he is just a negative man,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“That is who he is and that’s in is DNA.”
The NSW Liberal Premier, Barry O’Farrell, said the depiction of Mr Abbott as all negativity was wrong.
“Media … will more often run a criticism from a federal opposition leader, and a state opposition leader, that they’ll run a positive story,” he told Sky News.
“Today we’ll see ads around the (coalition’s) plan … but he’s saying that every day, it’s just that I suspect that this year we’ll start to see it reported more.”
Mr Abbott will tour several states this week and address the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday.
