With pledges to crack down on people smuggling, bolster national security and even promote patriotism, Labor leader Mark Latham is adopting a simple strategy to win this year's election: copy chunks of Prime Minister John Howard's last manifesto.
As Latham prepares for his first Labor conference as the party's leader starting today, he is already stamping his authority on what likely will be a long year of campaigning.
Last week he said he would be tougher on people smugglers than Howard while tempering his pitch with a pledge to be more compassionate toward asylum seekers.
This week, Latham called for more patriotism from migrants and parenting classes for moms and dads who can't control their kids.
The policies are likely to play well among conservative voters who have elected Howard at the last three elections, but Latham faces a tough test this week: Will his own Labor rank and file swallow the swing to the right?
The answer, from a party desperate for its first election win since 1993 is: probably.
Traditionally, Labor conferences feature heated and sometimes divisive debate on policy between the right and left wings of the party.
This time around, Latham will be looking for a show of unity.
"From Latham's perspective what's crucial for the conference is showing the party is united behind him and setting divisions behind," said Rick Kuhn, a political scientist at the Australian National University.
Howard, who is seeking a fourth three-year term at the election, which must be held by year's end, has built his political dominance on successful economic management, a tough stand on the war on terror, a close alliance with Washington and hardline policies against asylum seekers.
Kuhn says Latham's strategy is to neutralize Howard with similar policies and by parading his own conservative family, social and economic values, then striking at the government where voters believe Labor is stronger than Howard's conservative coalition.
"The main thing is neutralization, then Latham will target education and health, the areas where Labor has the confidence of the electorate," Kuhn said. "Latham's emulating the strategy successfully employed by [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair."
Labor's plan appears to be working. The center-left party's poll ratings have surged 6 percentage points since late November, drawing even with Howard's conservative coalition at 50 percent each.
Howard still leads Latham 46 percent to 31 percent on the key question of who would make the better prime minister. However, that's well down from the 51 point gap between Howard and Labor's previous leader, former union boss Simon Crean.
Howard branded Latham's plans to encourage social values in migrants and counsel parents of delinquent children as "Orwellian."
But respected political commentator Michelle Grattan said that was an odd comment from Howard who holds similar social values.
"You do feel in these first weeks -- and its very, very early days -- that Mark Latham has been able to get on the front foot in a way that Labor hasn't been able to for quite a while," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
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