By ABC's Marius Benson

Updated May 25, 2012 16:08:53

Photo: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Prime Minister Julia Gillard. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

The Gillard-Labor Government, on its long road to seeming destruction, has rewritten the political rule book and undermined some of the most cherished platitudes of politics watchers.

Platitude One: It's the Economy Stupid.

Gillard Labor has achieved an historically unprecedented disconnect between economic figures and its poll standing.

Anthony Albanese was proudly pointing out this week that Labor has lined up the economic ducks in an unprecedented row with all the key indicators - unemployment, interest rates and inflation - now tracking below 5 per cent.

That's possibly a first and it's certainly a unique achievement to put those numbers together with a primary vote for Labor at or below 30 per cent.

Platitude Two: The worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition.

This part of the orthodoxy needs to be re-written to add the word "majority" before "government".

Minority government looks to be much harder to run than oppose, based on the Gillard experience.

The Prime Minister was hailed as the deft negotiator when she patched together a bare majority in the weeks after the 2010 vote, while Tony Abbott was the clumsy, bullying loser who lacked her fine touch in cajoling others into the tent.

Both leaders were acting on the principle of: "Don't worry about the poison, just give me the chalice!"

But from the start the win looked like a qualified one, and the Gillard negotiating skills were put under new doubt this week when Andrew Wilkie caved in on his demands for new poker machine laws. He declared he would now settle for what the government was offering as that was all he could get.

This demonstrates a central weakness in the original deal settled between the Prime Minister and both Wilkie and the Greens - the price she paid was too high. In Willkie's case the mandatory limits that brought down the wrath of the clubs industry and with the Greens the carbon tax, which has been Tony Abbott's most potent weapon.

Andrew Wilkie's concession this week demonstrates the central truth that Julia Gillard should have exploited. That is that neither Wilkie nor the Greens nor the other Independents were ever going to do anything, finally, but back Labor.

They were never going to go with Abbott for two reasons, firstly they can't stand him, secondly they believed that at the first chance the Coalition would rush to the polls, confident of winning a majority in their own right.

The nearly two years of the Gillard Government have also undermined the belief that Leader of the Opposition is the worst job in politics. It looks a lot more fun most days leading the attack than trying to fend it off.

Platitude Three: In politics disunity is death.

If there is one quality the minority coalition has demonstrated its unity.

The Labor-Independent-Green allies have clung together in the face of the Abbott-led barrage like frightened kids watching a horror video.

On that evidence unity can also be death, or at least involve a strong sense of that final fate.

Platitude Four: A week is a long time in politics.

Political fortunes can pivot on a single event. John Howard's government was rescued from the depths by events like Tampa and 9.11. But at other times political life can be remorselessly unchanging.

The first several hundred days of Gillard Labor have seen it stuck in a ditch which has simply deepened with the passage of time.

And the next 500 days till election, or however long the government continues, show no sign of being any different.

If things don't change the case for the defence in Gillard-Labor circles will be that it was all worthwhile.

For all the mess, the scandals, the destruction of the party's standing, the grubby deals, the unlovely alliances - for all that; the hundreds of pieces of legislation passed will stand as a lasting achievement for the government.

But for how long? Tony Abbott is likely to be in a position to demolish the pivotal policy of the carbon tax, either by winning a majority in the Senate or by forcing Labor, after electoral decimation, to abandon its scheme.

Labor says it will never do that, but what else can they say at the moment? After any election, all bets are off.

The Gillard-Labor years have been a learning curve for all concerned and the lessons are many.

Marius Benson can be heard each weekday morning on NewsRadio's Breakfast Program and on his weekly podcast. View his full profile here.

Julia Gillard's game changer politics - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)