The election has officially started, with both parties beating their chest and making promises; promising not to make any promises. There’s no money in the kitty to make promises from what we hear.

Elections are always intriguing. Australians like to bet and predict the outcome of everything, so elections pull us out of political apathy for a few weeks just so we can predict who will win what seat and who will be out in the cold.

This is a sure bet, Hajnal Ban won’t be a candidate. Plenty of money to be made on that one.

Today Julia Gillard got off to a shaky start. Do you remember back to 2004 when John Howard announced the election? After months of being attacked about ‘trust’ from Latham, Howard simply said, ‘This election will be about trust. Who do you trust to keep the economy strong and protect family living standards?’

In one fell swoop Howard turned his greatest negative, trust, into a positive and Labor had to scramble to change its campaign theme. Howard was a master though, and Julia’s only been at the top job for a few weeks.

I didn’t see the point though in Tony Abbott mixing his messages today. He ’cremated’ WorkChoices and responded to the call of the election by talking, in part, about Labor’s ‘filthy’ campaign. Why would Tony talk about the Liberals’ biggest weakness, IR, on the day he was sure to get the most media attention since he became leader?

If polling was carried out today I would suggest the Liberals are down a few points as Abbott talked about his weaknesses while Julia talked about the future, always a polling strength for Labor.

Promising to bury WorkChoices without providing a credible alternative that could get air play is not the way to turn a negative into a positive.

From what we have seen today, neither party has set a clear theme or taken the agenda like Howard would have.

So there we have it, Julia is moving forward and Tony wants to forget about WorkChoices. Pretty unremarkable. However a minute is a long time in politics.

Grahame Richardson made a good point on the Today Show this morning, ‘This election is more even then the book makers realise it is’. After seeing today’s performance by the Prime Minister either party could expect to gain a majority.

Keep an eye on my blog, as over the next couple of weeks I plan to talk to a number of people about the lay of the land and what’s happening in voter land (the real world). My husband and I had planned an interstate trip for work purposes later in August, so we may take the opportunity to see firsthand what is happening in other parts of the country. Tomorrow I hope to look at the finer details of the election and review what the Liberal/National Party need to gain Government and what Labor needs to hold on.