By ABC's Barrie Cassidy

YouTube: Emotional Abbott farewells MP

Photo: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott (right) congratulates new Prime Minister Julia Gillard during Question Time in Canberra on June 24, 2010. (Alan Porritt: AAP)

Australia, it seems, is not having an election on September 14, but a handover. Never before has there been this level of expectation that a government is about to be thrown out, writes Barrie Cassidy.

Tony Abbott's near tearful tribute to the departing former government minister Martin Ferguson was properly, and widely, acclaimed for its generosity and bi-partisanship.

It was also clever, calculated politics.

Consider the phrasing: "I regret that he is unable to remain in the current government. The government, his party, the parliament and our country will be the poorer for his absence".

And then the conclusion: "Well may we shed a tear… for things which were, which should be, but which are not". Pure Wordsworth; romantic sentiments expressed more in sorrow than anger.

He was none too subtlety implying that Labor under Julia Gillard was no longer the party that "over the years, made a monumental contribution to this country… at its best, a nation building party".

For all its generosity to the individual it was also an obituary to what he regards as a dead government.

That same morning, the lead story in The Australian newspaper detailed how the Government is continuing to write green loans in defiance of the Coalition's call for the contracts to cease.

Imagine that. This lame duck soon-to-be-replaced government is blatantly defying Coalition policy!

Had they forgotten that the Coalition wrote to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation way back in February asking them not to write any more loans after July 1?

"It is unconscionable," protested the Coalition's finance spokesman, Andrew Robb. "We have been crystal clear in our opposition to the CEFC and in our resolve to abolish it."

Do you see what is going here? Australia, it seems, is not having an election on September the 14, but a handover.

Never before has there been this level of expectation that a government is about to be thrown out.

The nearest comparison in atmospherics must surely be the period in the United States between the election and the inauguration. The new president is known, but can't take office for almost three months while various administrative arrangements are put in place.

The outgoing leader is there by default, barely filling a vacuum while the other side of politics quietly plans cabinet positions, key appointments and policy priorities.

Witness Tony Abbott's admission that he had already thought about his victory speech, only to add rather lamely a day later that he had also thought about a speech in defeat.

"This is the sweetest victory of them all", in the right breast pocket; "Men and women of Australia, thanks for nothing", in the left.

This is not so much hubris on the Opposition's part, though that is a danger as the many weeks between now and the election are counted down. It is more a reflection of a mood that is shared by so many right around the country, not the least of it in the Caucus itself.

So now Tony Abbott, without appearing to be too presumptuous of course, gets himself up to speed on national security issues and invites the cameras in as he discusses weighty issues with the 'incoming' Attorney General George Brandis.

And the best Julia Gillard can do in the meantime is to adopt a persona of strained civility. That's what lame duck American presidents usually do.

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of ABC programs Insiders and Offsiders. View his full profile here.

Is this an election or a handover? - The Drum - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)