The election and a tip for Insiders

Election

The Prime Minister has announced she will be recommending to the Governor General in August that an election be held on September 14.

Please note caretaker mode for governments does not occur until Parliament is prorogued   dissolved   by the governor general. It is also usually at this time the opposition leader gets 'equal' status' with the PM on most media. It appears some people do not clearly do not understand this!
Knowing when the election will be held in advance is not new in NSW. We know here exactly when each State election will be held. We know when election campaigns start and when the government goes into caretaker mode. It is a pity more Journalists, bloggers and even opposition politicians took note of this.

There are pluses and minuses for both the Government and Opposition. I would state anyone who thinks most people would like to see a campaign of 6-7 months has rocks in their head.

It is not hard to cost any policy at present given the PBO is now with us. This can be updated when firstly the budget is delivered and then when PEFO comes out ( although MYEFO will probably be released just  before the campaign begins.)

Insiders

Insiders needs overhauling. They need more than just journalists or commentators  on the program.
This was painfully evident when poor old Gerry Henderson said no opposition had produced costed policies for Elections.

Fightback anybody where the Opposition utilised the services of Access Economics.  In 2001 They then helped the ALP. ( After this Peter Costello put so much pressure on Access Economics they never did costings again.) In 2004 the ALP used the Melbourne Institute.

It seems to me the blogosphere offers much better people to insiders.
Bazz, do yourself a favour and make people like John Quiggin, Nicholas Gruen, Ken Parish, Sinclair Davidson amongst others guests on your program.