As the Federal Government lurches through its winter of discontent it faces two leadership issues which it must confront before Parliament resumes early next month.

NBN Co (the vehicle driving the “super fast” cable rollout) is accounted for as a financial asset and not an expense item in the Budget despite the millions which the Government is transferring into its coffers.

The best that Rudd could achieve is to lessen the electoral damage if he has a personal popularity that translates itself into electoral appeal.

Apart from replacing a procrastinating policy wonk with a policy knee-jerker (as witnessed by Gillard’s flip-flopping on a solution for the asylum seeker issue and her blanket six-month minimum ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia responding to a program on ABC TV) I would suggest not a lot has changed.