There are some themes swirling around this evening as the blog rolls to a close.

In a week when the government placed deregulation squarely on the legislative agenda, Tony Abbott is asking us to ponder what sort of government we want. The PM would say the alternatives are a lean, streamlined, get-outta-the-way type of government or a molly-coddling, overbearing nurse kinda government that wraps its citizens in cotton wool. Or as he so fondly says, “shackles” business. It has a lot of traction in small business where owners are suffering administrative fatigue, hence his war against red tape. Tomorrow he will start to wind back laws for Repeal Day, including the Fofa laws that offer consumer protections for people taking advice from financial advisors. And there’s the rub. One person’s red tape is another person’s protection.

Of course the minister who has carriage of these changes is none other than assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, who has been under the spotlight for allegations heard in Icac on Monday regarding his directorship of Australian Water Holdings colliding with his presidency of the NSW Liberal Party.

Education was also in focus as Gonski supporters organised by the Australian Education Union came to Canberra to urge the Abbott government to fund the reforms in full. Labor used it to remind voters that Abbott promised to guarantee the same funding to schools as Labor had committed but over four years instead of six. This was on top of a consistent Labor campaign on the removal of income support bonuses for 1200 veterans orphans among thousands of others on the bonus. Abbott was implaccable. We said we would cut it and we will cut it.

Add to that, Abbott telling his party room that the government was starting to hit its stride, six months in. Ponder this. We used to hear the refrain that the major parties were both the same, stealing each other’s policies and offering voters two shades of grey. Yet the more we see of the Abbott government, the more we see him staking out his turf, drawing a deep line in the sand, puffing up his chest and daring his opponents to cross the line. You won’t be able to say there are not some clear policy choices at the next election.



So that is your lot for the night. Don’t forget tonight, Alan Joyce will appear before Senate economics committee at 7.30pm and you can watch it live via the parliament’s website. My colleague Daniel Hurst will have all the Joycy bits for the news. As for me, see you on the morrow.