Polls

TONY Abbott has attributed Julia Gillard’s narrow lead over him as preferred prime minister to his role as “the bearer of bad tidings”, conceding his sustained attack on Labor had inflicted collateral damage on his personal standing. But not on the standing of the party it leads, I might add.

“We’ve got a really crook government,” he said. “The bearer of bad tidings is often unpopular because the news that I regret to say I’ve had to give people time and time again is that this is a bad government. “It has been utterly incompetent. It has been deeply untrustworthy. And I guess if that’s what you are often saying, you cop a bit of the collateral.”

Can’t argue with that and neither do the polls.