http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/life/satire/abbotts-whatevers/

ONE supposes Tony Abbott is having a rather anxious weekend. That's what it's like when you stuff up.

Politics is often about managing and minimising problems. David Marr's Quarterly Essay on Abbott presented a relatively modest difficulty - a fresh story about how Abbott behaved badly towards a woman who beat him in a 1977 student election. He allegedly came close to her and punched the wall on either side of her head.

Abbott told Marr he had no recollection of the incident, which he claimed would be out of character. But when his office learned that it was to be the focus of the news story pointing to the main coverage in Good Weekend, it produced a fresh line: Abbott said the incident ''never happened''. The idea was to get the total denial into the story's first appearance.

That was mistake No.1. Both Abbott positions can't be true, and his ''never happened'' became more unbelievable as the days went on. Also stupid was that Abbott did not front the media quickly - indeed, not for a week. The man who is usually out every day wasn't to be seen, except in Parliament.

When challenged, he told Parliament his failure to be out and about on one day was because a soldier's funeral was on. Labor quickly produced a list of times when Abbott had appeared on military funeral days.

Finally, on Friday, he spoke on the affair (the issue predictably dominated both his TV appearance and his doorstop), suggesting he was the victim of Labor's ''dirt unit''.

Quarterly Essay immediately put out a sharp statement saying the idea that Marr was connected with any Labor dirt unit was ''completely implausible''. This prompted Abbott to contact Marr to say he hadn't been suggesting his source was the dirt unit - that reference was about others involved. In fact, Marr had heard the juicy anecdote when chatting to people at a 40th anniversary reunion of his law class.

Julia Gillard is leading Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister by the biggest margin in more than a year, according to a Newspoll released today.

The poll, published in The Australian newspaper today, shows Ms Gillard is 14 points ahead of Mr Abbott as preferred PM.

In the last fortnight her support rose from 39 per cent to 46 per cent, while Mr Abbott's fell from 38 per cent to 32 per cent.

Labor's primary vote rose three points to 36 per cent while the Coalition shed five points to 41 per cent.

The ALP has also pulled level with the Coalition in the two-party preferred standings, gaining five points to 50 per cent.

The Greens have also recovered from a bad result earlier this month, with their primary vote increasing from a three-and-a-half year low of 8 per cent to 12 per cent.

The poll has a margin of error of 3 per cent.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-17/big-boost-for-gillard-in-latest-newspoll/4264478?WT.svl=news1