JULIA Gillard's ''turn the torch on Tony'' election-year strategy was derailed on its first day by one of the scandals she was trying to put behind her.
Craig Thomson sits on the crossbench and the Health Services Union has disaffiliated from the ALP but the former Labor MP still casts a vote that the government regularly relies on.
Thomson's lawyer says he will plead not guilty to all charges. But Gillard's surprise announcement on Wednesday of the election date of September 14 was supposed to allow her to get on with governing in an atmosphere of certainty, to reset the debate from last year's serial scandals and crises, to force Tony Abbott to reveal policy and answer questions. Instead, questions about Thomson followed her all the way to the flood crisis in Queensland, where she didn't answer them.
For his part, Abbott didn't answer a long list of specific policy questions during his appearance on Thursday at the National Press Club and announced no new policy.
He also gave no clues about where the Coalition would find savings, just a reiteration that it would scrap the $1.23 billion Schoolkids Bonus - a move apparently scary enough for Abbott's staff to advise him against saying it again in the speech, according to an internal email leaked on Thursday.
Instead, Abbott reflected on the satisfaction he gets from patrolling with his surf club and fire brigade, lines that the leaked email had already informed us were designed to make the media think, ''yes, he is a good bloke, and yes he is more than fair dinkum''.
The rhetoric-rich strategy was starting to wear thin. But then the news broke that a sitting member had been charged with fraud and Abbott was back in familiar territory.
''This isn't just about what Craig Thomson may or may not have done … it has always been about the judgment of the Prime Minister,'' he said.
Thomson would be required to leave Parliament only if he was found guilty of a crime carrying a 12-month jail sentence and his court case is unlikely to be concluded before the September poll. But he would also have to leave Parliament if he became bankrupt due to the cost of running his defence.
Labor's former speaker Peter Slipper is also facing court in two weeks on three charges relating to misuse of Cabcharge entitlements.
And in New South Wales, Labor's pain is exacerbated by the continuing inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption into the former minister Eddie Obeid and a $100 million coal deal.
As Labor's expenditure review committee continues to scour for cuts to pay for election policies, Gillard will continue her push to draw Abbott into a detailed costings debate earlier than his strategists might have planned. But Labor's new political year is also starting as the old one ended - with scandal diverting from substance.