Anthony Albanese is sitting pretty for the election - so what could possibly go wrong?

Polls, as everyone stresses, aren't predictive - they register the mood of the moment. Nevertheless, and despite their unreliability last election, politicians and media take a lot of notice of them, and for Anthony Albanese their story is very positive.

So what could possibly go wrong on the Opposition Leader's path to The Lodge? Plenty, as Labor knows, reinforced by that 2019 experience. When voters really started concentrating during that campaign, they soured on the opposition.

Viewed from Labor's campaign bunker, the weeks between now and election day in May are very high-risk for Albanese, littered with both anticipated and unforeseeable hurdles.

There was a lesson this week in how damaging things can come out of the blue, when Albanese was confronted with (contested) allegations, reported in The Australian, that senior Labor women senators, including Penny Wong, had treated their colleague Kimberley Kitching badly.

While Kitching's complaints had apparently circulated within Labor, it took her sudden death last week for them to burst into the media.

The claims about Labor's "mean girls" (the term Kitching and her supporters reportedly used) were confronting when set against the background of a year's debate about Parliament House's "toxic" culture.

Albanese and Labor generally sought to throw a blanket over the story, refusing to engage with it on the grounds of respect for Kitching. Scott Morrison and other senior Liberals tried to spur it along, saying Albanese needed to address the allegations.

Labor's suppression strategy didn't work, with more information coming out; by Friday Wong, who is Labor's Senate leader, her deputy Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher, manager of opposition business in the upper house, issued a statement denying they had bullied Kitching.

The so-called "mean girls" story will blow over, but it's a reminder that in a campaign context (where we are, although the election hasn't yet been called) the unexpected, in whatever form, often deals itself in.

An unknown of the coming weeks is how Albanese will perform under the intense hour-by-hour scrutiny that will build every day. "No one has seen Albanese under extreme pressure," says one Labor man. "That's the hinge-point around the campaign."

Albanese isn't, by nature, quite the relaxed character he might seem. The spring is coiled. This is not necessarily a criticism, but something to be managed. With the Liberals targeting him personally and mercilessly, his ability to perform without serious mistakes in a high political temperature will be pushed to the limit.

In a campaign, a small slip or awkward moment can quickly becomes negative news, as Bill Shorten found when a Queensland man challenged him about tax relief for higher-income workers. The media played the exchange repeatedly.

Campaigns also "stress test" policies. Shorten's 2019 climate policy did not contain enough detail to be campaign-resilient. A pesky journalist's persistent questioning at one news conference had Shorten on the spot and showing the strain.

Two scheduled events will be significant in whether Albanese holds his advantage, or the government claws back ground: Tuesday week's budget and the Opposition Leader's budget reply two days later.

For a government in what seem dire straits, the budget is its chance to direct the voters' attention to the economy, its preferred and stronger ground, and to offer some inducements.

But it's become a balancing act. The government has flagged it will address people's concern about the rising cost of living, but it can't afford to look profligate, given addressing the high level of debt must also be a priority.

Albanese will use his reply to counter the budget and announce some big-bang policy. His delivery will need to be well-pitched, and the policy attention-grabbing and credible.

In coming weeks Albanese, who's still to define himself in the public's consciousness, must convince people he's a safe pair of hands on the economy. That might be more challenging than the issue of national security, on which the government's efforts to damage him seem so far to have missed their mark.

While Labor is wary of being sucked in by the polls, the government is fearful of their consistent message.

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Morrison finally got to Western Australia this week, coinciding with polling by Utting Research published in The West Australian showing several Liberal seats at high risk.

Morrison adopted a novel campaign strategy: a bromance with Labor Premier Mark McGowan, who in last year's election all but wiped out the state parliamentary Liberal Party.

According to Morrison's "spin" on their partnership, the federal government's joining Clive Palmer's case against WA over its border closure (from which Morrison later withdrew) should be seen as just part of the pandemic learning process.

The PM's line to WA voters is that "federal Labor under Anthony Albanese is not the same as state Labor under Mark McGowan. They are two very different animals." Regardless of who people vote for at the election, "Mark McGowan will be the Premier the next day."

When the two appeared together at a news conference, where new construction funds were announced, Morrison was effusive in thanking McGowan for his "partnership".

Appearing by himself later, McGowan reassured Labor he would be campaigning with and for Albanese.

Excluded by the closed border for so long, Morrison has been desperate to get to the west. But whether his physical presence and his largesse will erode those Labor leads is another matter.

This weekend, eyes will be on another state. In South Australia, according to polling, Labor may dislodge the Marshall Liberal government.

The outcome will be especially watched federally, because if Labor wins it will be the first time since COVID struck that an incumbent government has been defeated.

The symbolism wouldn't be missed.