Why the PM’s unpopularity? If you were in another country and not watching, listening to or reading Australian media reports and simply looking at the official statistics you would probably assume that ours was a well governed country doing remarkably well compared with most other nations.

That is certainly what the various international comparison surveys show yet here at home we are apparently judging this Labor Government as one of the worst ever. This morning’s Newspoll result, for example, is truly dismal for Julia Gillard and her team.

Why is it so? Well, being one of the knockers myself, I put it down to the cavalier way that our Prime Minister began her post-election period with that breach of promise over the carbon tax.

It was like Paul Keating all those years ago abandoning his solemn pre-election commitment to his L.A.W. tax cuts after his greatest victory of all. History suggests he was doomed to defeat from that moment on. Extreme political cynicism is a turn-off for ordinary voters.

The only solution I can see – and I have suggested this before – is to assure voters that, while they did not have the opportunity to pass judgment on the carbon tax before it becomes law, they will have the opportunity of doing so after it is in operation and they can evaluate its effect.

This will entail agreeing to use Labor’s votes in the Senate to support, if there should be a Liberal-National government, the repeal of the legislation.

Then as a government I would be taking the advice that Malcolm Fraser one promised and getting politics off the front pages as much as possible.

Unanimity the only doubt. There’s only one reason to be fearful that the Board of the Reserve Bank will increase interest rates this afternoon. The financial industry economists surveyed by the news agencies are unanimous in their opinion that there will be no change!. The Crikey Indicator puts the no change decision as a 92.3% chance.