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Also important for Labor, yesterday's dramatically good numbershave discombobulated the opposition. Shadow treasurer Joe Hockeywas left open-mouthed. He had to welcome the 'extraordinary figureof the March quarter'. But how to score a political point? Thebest he could come up with was: 'Imagine how well our countrycould do if we had a good government.' That line might have cut it if said just once; repeated severaltimes, it sounded silly, even a little desperate. It emphasisedthat these unanticipated numbers had undercut the opposition'snegativity about the economy. 'Here in Australia, economicconditions are soft,' Tony Abbott said on Tuesday, to find himselfbadly wrong on Wednesday. Even before yesterday, the opposition knew its economic gloom linewas overcooked. Speaking to Bloomberg's Asia Edge program earlier this week, Hockey said more realistically:'Australia is in a better position than most other Westernnations. We have an unemployment rate of around 5 per cent, we havestrong demand for our commodities and, even though they probablywon't get there, we have a government that at least is promising todeliver a surplus budget.' Not surprisingly, Hockey continued yesterday to push the case thatthis is a bad time to impose the carbon and mining taxes. But hisargument sounded much weaker than if the figures had played intothe opposition's hands. For the government, the most important question is whether it canget anything more than a day or two's good headlines out of thisresult. Its problem is that many people have simply turned off itsmessages. The economy is the envy of the developed world and 'the battlers'are being showered with largesse. Gillard is pulling out all stops to address people's cost-of-livingconcerns. Today she will canvass at a 'summit' how childcare,already heavily subsidised, can be made more affordable. But once people have made up their mind about a government, it isvery hard for it to get them to suspend judgment long enough tolisten to the positives, let alone change their fundamental view. Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Mobile Phone Signal Jammer , China Discovery Metal Detector for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Digital Metal Detector.
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