The Senate has scuttled the bills once and could hand Rudd the trigger to call an early election if the legislation is rejected again in November.

Treasury secretary Ken Henry has been commissioned to oversee a ''root and branch'' review of the taxation system.

Treasurer Wayne Swan says, ''We do want to simplify the tax system. We do want to put more incentive in the tax system. We do want to make our tax system internationally competitive.''

Henry is due to report back in December which leaves little time to launch let alone complete ''root and branch'' reform of the system.

It is a similar case on the health front. The National Preventative Health Taskforce and National Health and Hospital Reform Commission have handed their reports to the Government.

The commission has made 123 recommendations for change, including a full or partial federal takeover of public health services.

Some of the other major proposals are to set up comprehensive primary health-care centres open after hours; establish a universal dental care scheme to meet the cost of basic services such as check-ups, fillings and dentures; and radically overhaul Medicare so Australians can choose a health and hospital plan offered by a public or private provider to cover bills for GP services, pharmaceuticals and public hospital treatment. Given the consultation time frame, it seems unlikely that the Commonwealth will effect major change before the election.

Rudd has again set homework for Government MPs and senators.

In the past, Rudd ordered all members to visit a homeless shelter to help them understand the problem.

In a caucus meeting this week, he directed members to call community meetings and visit their local hospitals to seek feedback on the report and stress that reform would come at a cost. They were asked to report back during a special caucus meeting called before the Council of Australian Governments' meeting late this year.

One COAG meeting has already been devoted to discussing ways to improve the lot of indigenous people, particularly their life expectancy, health, education, housing and employment.

The apology to the Stolen Generations generated good will and a major pot of money has been committed to ''close the gap'' between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

It does take time to tackle intractable problems festering for decades, but there are vastly different views on whether anything has actually improved since the apology.

On these five fronts, the mark made has ranged from slight to non-existent in the first term so far.

In the countdown to their command performance, the federal election, ''discipline'' is one of the most popular tunes belted out by Government MPs and senators.

They pat themselves on the back for displaying ''discipline'' as their opponents publicly bicker, split over policy positions such as emissions trading and put on a very public display of ill-discipline in the House of Representatives chamber.

This week, several West Australian Liberal MPs Wilson Tuckey, Steve Irons, Dennis Jensen, Nola Marino, Don Randall and Luke Simpkins staged a walk-out in support of their colleague Barry Haase who was suspended from the House for 24 hours. Haase took umbrage with the Government claiming credit for the Gorgon deal a $50billion agreement to supply liquefied natural gas to China subject to environmental approvals.

The walk-out backfired on Turnbull who was described by the Government as ''weak'' for failing to stamp his authority over the party and foster discipline.

As the adage goes, division is death in politics.

But it is healthy to have robust and frank debates within the ranks over policy an increasingly rare occurrence in the caucus room.

Danielle Cronin is Political Correspondent.