During the first week of the 2010 election campaign the leader of the Coalition, Tony Abbott, was reduced to incoherence as he tried to bury John Howard’s WorkChoices but at the same time preserve some credibility as a reformer in the critical policy area of labour market regulation. The labour market accounts for approximately 70 per cent of the national economy, so the regulatory arrangements which govern its operation are critical to overall economic success. Such incoherence at the highest political level is an outward and all too visible sign of inner intellectual confusion, and if we are to make…