In Australia’s careful game of political chess the play in recent times has been very much on the defensive side. Every attacking gambit of Prime Minister John Howard has been matched by Kevin Rudd being prepared to sacrifice a pawn or two like a candidate from the Electrical Trades Union or even a Peter Beattie.

Whenever Mr Rudd feints with a potentially popular policy like spending on education or the approach to climate change, the government matches it. So we might be having a long campaign but it is a very cautious one with Labor even pretending to be more fiscally conservative than the Liberals.

When it comes to points of difference it is hard to find one of significance apart from the respective approaches to industrial relations. Here, despite the obfuscations from both sides, we can detect a difference.

The Coalition sees trade unions as an impediment towards a slower growth in wage rates for the workers while Labor thinks there is a role for the people who determine their pre-selections in protecting the lower paid. Hardly riveting stuff but at least a difference in emphasis.

And then yesterday we at last got a genuine difference of opinion. The Government wants to sell uranium to India even though that country refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

For once Kevin Rudd did not even prevaricate long enough to call his pollsters for advice. He attacked the Prime Minister for increasing the risk of nuclear weapons because India would be able to use Australian uranium for its power stations while keeping its own limited production for bombs.

To further expand the difference on the nuclear question, Mr Rudd even had a word of support for an idea floated by Premier Beattie about holding referendums in local government areas to discover the views of ratepayers on having an atomic power station in their back yard.

Labor, it seems, has done enough previous research to be confident that this is an issue that will work in its favour.