Election campaigns are usually all spectacle and no policy. Today was the reverse.

The ALP’s official election campaign was launched in Brisbane today in front a huge audience of Labor supporters and journalists.

In terms of the event itself – it was a slick, stage-managed promotion of all things Labor, but one that eventually fell flat due to mediocre speeches.

In terms of policy, however, it was momentous.

Kevin Rudd – in a surprise move – began his speech by focusing on Labor’s traditional weakness: economic management.

He took aim at John Howard and said the Coalition had gone too far in their election spending.

He then said, as a real economic conservative, he wouldn’t be matching Howard dollar for dollar.

Instead he said he’d be spending 75 per cent less.

And where would this $2 billon or so go? All toward his education revolution – which he outlined in detail.

The official campaign launch occurred at Brisbane’s Performing Arts Centre, the exact same venue where Howard launched his own election campaign on Monday.

The centre was surrounded by mesh barricades, federal police and a small contingent of protesters.

One of the protesters was the infamous “Lucy the sheep” mascot – aka Jodie Ruckley – who has followed the politicians around the country in a sheep’s costume all campaign to protest live animal export.

Lucy actually got arrested in Sydney recently for getting too close to John Howard. But today she was far more subdued, and stayed well away from the action.

Subsequently, nobody in the media gave her any attention at all. This was quite an unfortunate result for Lucy, particularly considering it was a hot day in Brisbane and the suit looked stuffy.

The press room inside the Arts Centre was packed with all the big name journalists one would expect at such an event. Laurie Oakes, Michelle Gratton, Paul Kelly, David Speers, and Michael Brissenden were all in attendance. They joined about 60 or so other journalists, all of whom patiently waited to be let into the hall.

Proceedings were scheduled to start at 12:30pm. At 12:40pm, the press room was told there would be a slight delay – possibly as long as 20 minutes.

Surprisingly, this information almost caused a mini riot in the newsroom. Journalists complained bitterly about the “lack of organisation” – although with swear words inserted between each syllable – and said they’d write articles damning the ALP for being behind schedule.

And they did. If you happened to catch The Australian’s website at precisely 12:50pm today, you would have seen a short story condemning the delay.

Eventually, the press were allowed into the hall and they grumblingly took their allocated “media” seats, about 20 minutes late.

Once seated, they got the opportunity to gaze at the impressive set design.

The ALP design team had gone all out. A gigantic blue and red backdrop greeted the audience, with the slogan “new leadership” plastered across most of it.

However, to describe the colour scheme as “blue and red” probably gives a false impression. It was more like 80 per cent blue and 20 per cent red. Red is the traditional colour of the Labor movement in Australia, and also that of communism.

It was a perfect representation of how modern Labor perceives itself – about 80 per cent economic conservatism and about 20 per cent socialism.

After another brief delay, the event kicked into action.

There had been debate all week among political journalists as to which former Labor leaders would appear at the launch.

Mark Latham would obviously not be invited. But what about Paul Keating? Or Bob Hawke? Would they even “wheel out” Gough Whitlam for the show? (as most journalists described it procedure).

In the end, all three former prime ministers made an appearance – to resounding applause and a standing ovation.

Neither of them spoke, however. Probably because – unlike the set design – these Labor men are still more red than blue.

After the fanfare for the leaders had died down, it was time for the speeches to begin.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh went first, and used her five minutes to more or less boast about how great her sunshine state was.

Next was ALP Deputy Leader Julia Gillard. She spent her five minutes to more or less boast about how great Kevin Rudd was.

Neither performance was particularly memorable. Gillard’s speech, in particular, paled in comparison to the biting humour displayed by Howard’s own deputy, Peter Costello, in the Coalition campaign launch on Monday.

Then finally, after much build-up, Kevin Rudd emerged.

He spoke for almost 40 minutes, and comprehensively outlined ALP policy so far, while giving a few hints of future direction.

It was a speech bumper-full of the Ruddisms everyone has come to know and hate. There was talk of “fresh ideas”. There was talk of “new leadership”. At one point, Rudd even combined the two, saying: “Friends, Australia needs new leadership with fresh ideas”.

But eventually the spin gave way to real policy, and he dropped the big education announcements everyone had been expecting (largely thanks to ALP leaks notifying journalists to expect big education announcements).

He promised every Australian school student between years nine and 12 would have access to their own computer at school. He promised to double the number of university scholarships. He promised to create 1000 new research scholarships for “mid-career” study.

And then the biggest announcement of all: he would increase the number of skilled training places by 450,000 over the next four years.

In a clever move, all this talk of “education revolution” was then used as a way to support his mantra about being an “economic conservative”.

“Education is the engine room of the economy,” he said.

“My vision for Australia is to build the best education system in the world – so that we can produce the most innovative, most skilled and best trained workforce in the world.”

It was a compelling message, intelligently combining the traditional strength of the ALP (education) with a need to look economically robust.

To use the colour analogy again, it was the red of a “revolution” with the blue of Howard-like conservatism.

And Rudd said he wasn’t finished yet.

“Today I have announced three new chapters in Labor’s education revolution,” he said.

“We will be building on these chapters into the future.”

After this preview of yet another sequel to the year-long blockbuster known as “education revolution”, everyone slowly filed out of the Arts Centre. The whole show had lasted one hour.

Overall, it was a strong ALP performance – but it didn’t make for exciting viewing. Most of the crowd yawned on and off throughout proceedings, particularly when Gillard trudged through her tiresome speech.

One could only wish that humour and showmanship could be utilised more in these proceedings, rather than being avoided because it may look unprofessional on TV.

The only – repeat only – humorous moment of the entire event was when a short video played before Rudd entered the stage.

It showed a number of “real” voters talking about how great Rudd would be as prime minister.

One bloke had this to say: “I like Kevin Rudd because, finally, there’s someone who speaks my language”.

The video then cut to Rudd speaking in mandarin at APEC.

And that was the only joke that was made.

If Rudd becomes prime minister, it will be a serious three year performance indeed.