Emma ♥ Julia

WITH OUR Prime Minister short a spinner now that Riot Boy Hodges is off to England there is a vacancy to be filled. This may explain why Lateline's Emma Alberici was even more enthusiastic about the Gillard government's achievements than ABC hiring guidelines demand.

EMMA ALBERICI: It does beggar belief, doesn't it Dennis Shanahan, that the Government isn't winning the economic argument? What do you put that down to? Given we are the envy of the world?

EMMA ALBERICI: Laura Tingle, it wouldn't be the first time a political promise has been broken, when we talk about the carbon tax. Why is it that Julia Gillard and her party just can't seem to get a win here? ... they've had a win on the legislative front with health reform, they've done some big things, big accomplishments, yet still Tony Abbott seems to be able to land every blow.

EMMA ALBERICI: It's incredible Laura Tingle, isn't it, that in a week where they wound back middle class welfare, classic Labor territory, that they still didn't manage to get that message across

EMMA ALBERICI: ... how much longer can [Abbott] continue to tell the public what he is going to give them before he might actually be held to account and asked to explain how he is going to fund all the promises?

If Alberici can demonstrate even a slight talent for starting riots, she will be sitting on her idol's knee in no time.