Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists that calling an election and announcing the shock resignation of two senior cabinet ministers three days after calling an election, is all part of the plan.
While Gillard is giving business, investors and others greater certainty, she is doing the same for the opposition.
A Gillard caucus critic said that 'with one fell swoop she has turned Abbot from Opposition Leader into alternative PM". Bob Hawke in 1984 had a bad experience when he gave opposition leader Andrew Peacock an eight-week campaign platform - this is getting on for eight months (nearly 230 days).
With 72 seats, the ALP can't afford to lose a single one and must win four more to stay in government. It's vote is at a higher-water mark in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. It has more to defend than gain in those seats. It can't do any better in the ACT, and no one thinks it can recover in Western Australia. Even its one seat in the Northern Territory could be in doubt.
Those around Gillard insist she is resolute and confident, a woman who knows where she is going, however, despite Gillard's resolve, the departure of two senior Ministers officially brings the number of Labor MPs departing at the next election to seven.
The darkening clouds over the Gillard government show no signs of abating.
