But, because their separate research gives them similar answers, they end up sounding much the same. And both sides have been heavily influenced by the policies of economic rationalism, which has closed the old ideological divide. But that brings me to my news, which is good and bad. The bad news is that though the next Federal election isn't due for more than a year, the campaigning has begun already. The good news is that this time we'll be offered a real, old-style choice.
Ideology is back.
But though both sides will make promises with a similar total cost, what they promise will be very different. You'll have to pick. So the central election issue, the substance amid all the usual flim-flam, will be the size and role of the public sector. You'd think it, but it isn't so. Big Government is just as big as ever - if not a little bigger.