Rudd highlights cost of living

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has admitted cost-of-living pressures are hurting
households in western Sydney, scene of a state Labor by-election rout on the
weekend.
"It is still very hard out there," he told reporters in Canberra when quizzed about
a 25 per cent swing against the Keneally government in the previously safe Labor
seat of Penrith.
While Mr Rudd was keen to play down the electoral repercussions for his own
government - saying the by-election was fought on state issues - he took the
opportunity to acknowledge voter concerns about rising costs.
"The cost-of-living pressures out there and the challenges faced by small business
on the ground are real and they are hard and difficult.
"I pick this up time and time again."
Mr Rudd declined to say whether Labor was picking up signs of voter concern in
western Sydney about a surge in asylum-seeker boat arrivals.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, unsurprisingly, was keen to make a connection between
the Penrith result and the political fortunes of federal Labor.
"It was a very big swing but I think people are getting increasingly sick of bad
Labor governments," he told reporters in Sydney.
"We've got a bad Labor government here in New South Wales, we've got a bad Labor
government in Canberra."
The government is bracing itself for another voter rebuff this week with publication
of the latest Newspoll.
Last week's Nielsen poll had the government trailing the coalition by six percentage
points.
Treasurer Wayne Swan is expecting more of the same from Newspoll.
"I think the polls will be difficult for us for some time to come," he told Network
Ten on Sunday.
"Of course, we can win the election because we've got the big economic calls right."
Mr Swan admitted the row with mining companies over the government's proposed
resource super-profits tax had contributed to Labor's poor showing in the opinion
polls.
Relations between the two sides appear to have reached a new low with claim and
counter-claim about bullying tactics.
But the government's long-running dispute with Telstra over its involvement in the
$43 billion national broadband network looks closer to resolution.
In a major breakthrough in protracted negotiations, Telstra will be paid $9 billion
to effectively lease its existing infrastructure to NBN Co - the company that will
build and operate the network.