Original sentence: Beazley and the Labor Party found themselves in a difficult political position.Howard then effectively used this as a "wedge issue" to portray Labor as "weak on national security".Howard was able to exploit a series of events and restore his political standing.Howard, sensing the way the wind was blowing, undertook a number of policy changes, including the abandonment of petrol excise indexation and increasing government benefits to self-funded retirees.In August the government refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MS Tampa, carrying a group of alleged asylum seekers picked up in international waters, to enter Australian waters.The GST was proving unpopular and other economic issues were working against the government.The government's action was popular with many Australians who were hostile to illegal immigration and to what they saw as abuse of Australia's refugee program by "bogus" asylum-seekers.These measures, particularly the increase in government largesse to the relatively well-off elderly, were regarded in the media as vote-buying, but in retrospect were politically effective in reversing a drift to Labor in this demographic
Edited sentence: " Beazley and the Labor Party found themselves in an impossible position.(For details of this incident, see MS Tampa.) The government's action was popular with the many Australian who were hostile to illegal immigration and to what they saw as abuse of Australia's refugee program by "bogus" asylum-seekers.Howard then effectively used this as a "wedge issue" to portray Labor as "weak on national security.Howard was able to exploit a series of events are restore his political standing.Howard, sensing the way the wind was blowing, undertook a number of policy changes, including the abandonment of petrol excise indexation and increasing government benefits to so-called "self-funded retirees".In August the government refused permission for the Norwegian freighter Tampa, carrying a group of alleged asylum seekers picked up in international waters, to enter Australian waters.The GST was proving highly unpopular and other economic issues were working against the government.These measures, particularly the increase in government largesse to the relatively well-off elderly, were widely regarded in the broadsheet press as vote-buying, but in retrospect were politically effective in reversing a drift to Labor in this demographic