Budget deficit, national debt, spending, employment, unemployment and under employment, promises, promises, promises and the Gonski Report on education, the National Broadband Network, the Mining tax and Carbon tax, a National Disability Insurance Scheme and Labor’s unpopularity among its traditional voters, industrial relations reform and the problem of “boat people”… these issues began an election…

Niki Savva joined the Canberra press bureau in 1972 and today is a columnist for The Australian and commentator on ABC TV’s The Drum. During the Howard Government, in 1998, Niki Savva left her job as head of The Age’s Canberra desk to take up the position of then Treasurer Peter Costello’s press secretary. In…