If it does nothing else, the election year of 2013 will vindicate some political careers and end quite a few others. Among them, of course, will be those of the party leaders: we will learn whether Julia Gillard can recover from an apparently terminal decline in the opinion polls and whether Tony Abbott can translate his initial blitzkrieg into a win where it counts.

Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne :

This is not the election campaign. Right?

With Julia Gillard on the back foot, Tony Abbott makes a foolish ministry pledge, writes MICHELLE GRATTAN.

Tony Abbott says Julia Gillard has been running a 'protection racket' for Craig Thomson as the former Labor MP is arrested.

With Julia Gillard announcing an election on September 14, Andrew Elder says the campaign will be a race between those who want to discover what an Abbott government will be like and those who want to hide it.

The election will not be won by popularity, being positive or negative or specific policies, but by who makes us more comfortable.

It was with a silken touch that the government slipped the bank lobby's ''covered bond'' legislation through the Senate a little more than a year ago.

Mr Abbott again took aim at the carbon tax.