What I don’t know about the Liberal Party could fill a warehouse, but most of the prescriptions outlined by Michael Kroger on Sky News on Tuesday accord with my prejudices:
The organisational wings around the country need to be reformed immediately, particularly in relation to the branch structure and preselections. There’s a lot of things that can be done, very quickly. The party is in a terrible electoral position, but it can very quickly put itself into a fantastic position. This is not a five or ten year repair job. You could actually fix all the organisational and structural problems in the Liberal Party within 12 months if you had the will to do it, and make whoever the incoming leader is in a fantastic position to fight the next federal election in three years’ time. But what tends to happens is people retreat to their corners, they want to protect their own power bases and nothing happens. It requires some strong decision-making from the senior people to fix this thing, they can fix it in 12 months … The branch structure is 60 years old and even though the branch members still do a fantastic job, it’s the structure, not the branch members, it’s the structure which is drowning us. We’ve got probably 500 people in the Victorian Liberal Party whose job is as honorary auditor … There need to be branch amalgamations, we need to base the party around state or federal electorates, you need to broaden the base of people voting in preselections, you need to have perhaps a senior committee of senior party people who have the final say over preselections to rubber stamp the selections, you’ve got to stop the petty branch stacking, we should amalgamate with the National Party, we should give the federal party some more power a little like the ALP does, we should make it a federalist party and not just individual states, we need to totally revamp the fundraising within the organisation and we need to give the federal executive some power … you just can’t have situations where five or 10 or 20 people can stack a few branches and take over a safe Liberal Party seat and preselect a C-grade candidate and be happy with that. I pay credit to the Labor Party for some of the candidates they preselected, I don’t like their politics, but the fact is in various places they strong-armed some tired old members out, put some new people in who may or may not succeed but on the face of it some of them have got very good credentials for parliament. That’s the way you have to operate in politics. To leave these things to the branch-stackers is a recipe for disaster.
Malcolm Turnbull – wealthy, assertive, independently powerful – struck me as being just the man for the job outlined by Kroger. Perhaps the party room knows better. Or perhaps, to use Kroger’s formulation, they have signalled an intention to retreat to their corners and protect their own power bases, and nothing will happen.
Recommended reading: Alister Drysdale of the Business Spectator reports that both parties’ internal polling showed a late Coalition recovery that was stopped dead in its tracks by the Lindsay pamphlet disgrace. It’s also argued that the fake Jeff Kennett letter regarding proposed funding cuts to the states had the same impact during the last week of the 1996 campaign. I personally do not imagine that either incident was single-handedly decisive, but this is not the first report to emerge of a sharp shift in party tracking polling following Jackie Kelly’s infamous “Chaser-style prank” interview of last Wednesday. There’s also a very intriguing article on the Liberal Party’s late-term leadership ructions from Pamela Williams in today’s Financial Review (subscriber only unfortunately).
Peter Lindsay should be thanking his lucky stars for all those defence personnel in Lindsay, although why they all vote Liberal is beyond me.
Correction: I meant to say Herbert, not Lindsay – still got Jackie Kelly on the brain LOL
Please note too:
who exactly has KR surrounded himself with (ie who has the clout in Cabinet)?
Faulkner
Gillard
Kim Carr
Penny Wong
Fitzgibbon
Crean
ie, the old Latham loyalists.
The more things change the more they stay the same eh?
ESJ, I suppose you’ll be all over Nelson when he selects Howard loyalists to serve in his Shadow Ministry. Unfortunately in a leadership vote people have to vote for someone and obviously they thought Latham was the best leader at the time… although why they did I’ll never know.
Incidentally, your views on the Nelson/Bishop selection? I thought it utterly predictable.
I’m still hopeful that Laming will go – has anyone ever seen this preening little do-nothing pretty boy?
I can’t wait for my honeymoon to start….
No mention of the ‘roosters’ now ESJ, who occupy the positions that Costello and Downer did?
For mine – I couldn’t be happier that Faulkner and Gillard will be doing the running.
Howard Hater at 151
“why they all vote Liberal is beyond me”
They think voting Labor is for guys with small, er, feet.
Hey Brendan, isn’t three enough?
I’d just like to point out that I don’t know who Steve is or why he puts a link to every post I do in the comments. But I’m sure he is very nice.
I would have voted for Latham too. Got them closer to getting to Rudd. They just had to go to Beazley for a while.
Just to get back to the actual topic of discussion (ahem…) the Libs appear to have done a Beazley and elected Nelson as a transitional leader just like the ALP did after the 2004 deluge… I agree with Kroger, you do not necessarily need 5 years to get it right (where there is a will, there is a way) and the Libs would have to regroup within the next 3 years to have any chance of winning the 2010.
Not that I wish it to happen! Agree with William about the potential of one Malcolm Turnbull, I am not sure why I like the guy (strewth, never thought I would say this about a Tory), but perhaps that is because of his social-liberal beliefs.
The most obvious challenge for Nelson is not whether or not to say ‘sorry’, or what to do with the vote on WorkChoices, but how to establish some sort of equillibrium within the party and maintain it.
I still think he will either fail dismally or succeed just enough to set the background for the next leader who will take the Libs into the 2010 election, and that certainly won’t be Bishop.
Daily Tele ‘… and Kevin Rudd announces he will not be guided by his religious beliefs.’
There’s a blessed relief!
Pancho you forgot Conroy? The roosters might be in Cabinet but its pretty clear which faction is dominant.
LTEP – IMO Nelson needs to focus on the internals in the first year.
Work out who is not in it for the long haul, for example Downer and organise their transition out of parliament and bring in fresh blood without losing any seats in by-elections.
Ideally should be looking to have more people come in who are not from a WASP background. For example an Asian candidate in Berowra could be a big winner for the Liberals. Given the HK Chinese community is a natural fit with the Liberals for example.
But for sure the Opposition front bench will be weaker – always is immediately after a loss but its the quality of people who come into the safe seats now that will count later.
Otherwise sit back and wait for Labor to make mistakes. Why commit yourself to anything until you see the colour of the IR legislation or how the “sorry” works. Interestingly KR for all his blathering about sorry has already ruled out compensation – how courageous, Gestures not substance it seems at least in this area are the order of the day.
111
Ron Brown
Saying that the Liberal Party stands for ‘individual choice’ is like saying the Liberal Party stands for ‘motherhood’, which if unqualified, actually means a teensy bit less than sod all.
You know what, Labor stands for ‘individual choice’ too, so let’s examine a couple of the things you cite:
Work Choices, now let’s see, the boss gets to make the choice of what conditions you work under, and the worker gets to make the choice to ‘find another job’ (er, maybe, or more likely, maybe not). Clearly, the issue is about POWER, and giving it all to one side was roundly rejected by the far more sensible portion of the electorate.
Private Medical Insurance. Is it really ‘private’, or is it a publicly subsidised system to keep the insurance industy well lubricated and to keep those able to afford it with access to a much higher class of medical care? Once again it’s about power, the power of the medical profession and the insurance industry to extract money from the ‘commonwealth’, for its own enhancement.
Private Schools: same thing. The power is clear, wealth and privilege Vs the commonwealth.
So why do all these ‘private’ institutions need ‘public’ funding? Well, in your ideal market economy they shouldn’t, but the reality is they have ‘power’, and under the previous Liberal government, they got what they wanted and the public (or common) wealth was gradually being siphoned off to their side of the ledger.
Arguments about whether private enterprise is always more efficient is full of blah blah, and I’m not going to go there here, but suffice to say, when the boat starts to list too far to one side, we are smart enough as a nation to tilt it back again.
ESJ: George Colbran isn’t a celebrity candidate. He has been involved with the ALP since 1980. They didn’t just go and say ‘Hey wanna be apart of our party’. He even went through the preselection process, and won it over a union official (by a decent majority).
Pancho let me just put on the record that we all make mistakes.
And I don’t believe premature elevation is a problem anyway.
It can often be misdiagnosed such as was the case for Costello. Trust me, I’m a doctor.
[Otherwise sit back and wait for Labor to make mistakes. Why commit yourself to anything until you see the colour of the IR legislation or how the “sorry” works.]
Are the Liberals honestly going to vote against the apology in parliament?
That would look hilarious, the house actually having to divide to vote on a condolence motion. That probably hasn’t happened for 100 years.
[Daily Tele ‘… and Kevin Rudd announces he will not be guided by his religious beliefs.’
There’s a blessed relief!]
He seemed to be endorsing the Thomas Paine / Jefferson position, that religion is a direct connection between a person and their god, and that the state should have nothing to do with it.
165 kirribili – that’s right, and not one Lib supporter has been able to even attempt to enunciate a core principle of the party this morning
In the absence of any base belief, their reason for being must simply be to exist for the purposes of defeating the other big party whatever their policies, good or bad, so they can give heaps to their own special idealogical friends.
How many people do you think support an “apology” in Flynn or Solomon, ShowsOn?
What kind of preselection process Will?
The Libs’ slow gains in 2PP will taper off, and Labor will probably win around 52.8% 2PP, a reversal of the 2004 result. This is because most of the pro-Lib postals and pre-polls have already been counted; what remains is mostly the absentee and provisional counts, which will favour Labor in 2PP by about the same or better than the ordinary votes. You can see current count for all vote types here:
http://vtr.aec.gov.au/HouseStateFirstPrefsByPartyByVoteType-13745-NAT.htm
and the same for 2004 here:
http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/HouseStateFirstPrefsByPartyByVoteType-12246-NAT.htm
Maybe it was an anti-Maccas vote and they should have gone with Union Guy #3? and Union Guy #4 in La Trobe?
Whether the people support it or not is of no consequence. Policy shouldn’t be decided on the basis of popularity… it should be decided on whether its the right thing to do. The right thing to do undoubtedly is to make an apology to the Indigenous people, not from the people necessarily but as an enduring Government of Australia. This means that governments ought to take responsibility to rectify the wrongs of previous governments.
Now, I also believe there should be compensation… but that’s not for this place…
169
ShowsOn
Rudd’s professional background is as a diplomat, and you don’t start with “hi, I believe in god the father, the son, and the holy f#@3ing ghost, you heathen!”
It was always a safe bet that KR was going to do ‘good’ things without asking us to genuflect (unlike many other ‘do gooders’). Nup, he’s consumately in charge of the nation, it’s not about his particular sect.
Well, the Victorian Liberals say this:
We believe in the inherent dignity, responsibility and potential of all Victorians. We believe that government must protect the freedoms of all Victorians and provide the opportunity for all people to achieve their full potential.
We believe in the fundamental freedoms of individuals and groups within society to think, to worship, to speak, to choose and to associate.
We believe in upholding the Constitution, parliamentary democracy, the democratic process and accountable government.
We believe in equality before the law.
We believe that families provide the most effective environment for individuals to achieve their full potential.
We believe in equal opportunities for all Australians in a tolerant and diverse society.
We believe in the protection of people who are vulnerable, in ill health, disadvantaged or in need, and in providing them with effective assistance.
We believe that the creation of wealth is essential for meeting our national and individual aspirations and that individual effort should be appropriately rewarded.
We believe that free enterprise will maximise economic growth and national prosperity.
We believe that where the private sector can deliver a service efficiently and fairly, an unnecessary burden should not be imposed on the tax payer.
We believe in the decentralisation and distribution of power and believe that local decisions are best made at the local level.
We believe in securing our national heritage and natural environment now and for future generations.
160 Flute, I think I just share your perverse sense of humour.
169 – Yes, an excellent position to adopt by Jefferson & co. Best to keep quiet about one’s imaginary friends in public. Leave them out of the meetings too, if they won’t be too hurt.
Michael @ 125, a member of what?
JV @ 163. A person’s religious beliefs can’t simply be neutralised whenever it suits. They will always form the basis of their value system. This is not something to be feared. Some of Labor’s (and the world’s) best leaders have had strong religious convictions. Problems arise when the holder of these beliefs believes that everyone else should hold them too and that those who do not are somehow lesser creatures to be villified or worse. Abbott, for example is a fundamentalist Catholic. Others are fundamentalist protestants (the Hillsong set). The American religious right is a sadly notable case in point. The fundamentalist mindset becomes dangerous when any act becomes permissable if it serves what is believed to be the best interests of whatever Deity or Cause is proclaimed. So far Australia has resisted such movements and I doubt it will arise to the same degree here. Though I do get concerned with the influence generated by the Exclusive Brethren and sundry other nutters of the far right. As for Mr Rudd, his religious values underpin his social justice and social democrat beliefs. All rather benign really.
ESJ – given your own somewhat eloquent beliefs on the subject (if I am remembering correctly) I find it odd that you are giving us:
‘Otherwise sit back and wait for Labor to make mistakes. Why commit yourself to anything until you see the colour of the IR legislation or how the “sorry” works.’
and
‘How many people do you think support an “apology” in Flynn or Solomon, ShowsOn?’
without blinking, questioning why your party would want to play partisan games with this issue, or even calling for some leadership from them.
Great to see KR went to Matt Price’s funeral in Perth.
Given what is on his plate ATM to take virtually a full day off to honor a great bloke says much about both Price and KR.
[How many people do you think support an “apology” in Flynn or Solomon, ShowsOn?]
How is this relevant?
It’s how many that support it in the parliament that counts, and that would be a majority. So if the House has to divide, the Government motion would pass, making the opposition look petty, and making Malcolm Turnbull look like a hypocrite.
#177
We believe that it is our right to put in mediocre Opposition Leaders.
Ta for the link ESJ
We believe that for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows. AAAAhhhhhh…..
Just as well they are already out of their misery.
KR (165), you are spot on. The Liberals currently stand for nothing but privilege and more privilege for those already privileged, via the transfer of wealth from public to private hands.
Con artist that he was, Howard was the acceptable face of this belief, while misfits like People Skills, Tip and Lord Downer were/are the unacceptable face.
Mentioning the the words face and Half Nelson in the same sentence does no-one any favours, but there you go.
Um, just off the top of my head, but what does everyone think about apologising to the indigenous population first, and then as part of the apology, to all Australian people on behalf of all govts (past and present) for messing the whole thing up.
It would importantly differentiate between laying blame on mainstream Australia (which is where i think the opposition comes from) and instead put the blame on the govts of the past….
[169 – Yes, an excellent position to adopt by Jefferson & co. Best to keep quiet about one’s imaginary friends in public. Leave them out of the meetings too, if they won’t be too hurt.]
Jefferson of course authored a new version of the bible with all the mystical stuff relating to virgin births, and people returning from the dead removed.
Even though I am the Leader now, I still have the same views but I promote them where it’s appropriate.
Ferny @ 181 [As for Mr Rudd, his religious values underpin his social justice and social democrat beliefs. All rather benign really.]
I’ll put up with that if it doesn’t interfere, but would prefer if his ideas of justice and equality were underpinned by his own intellectual enquiry. You don’t need religion for a sense of compassion and belief in justice
183
MayoFeral Says:
November 30th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Great to see KR went to Matt Price’s funeral in Perth.
Given what is on his plate ATM to take virtually a full day off to honor a great bloke says much about both Price and KR.
…but I suspect he won’t be attending the ‘professional’ funerals of either the Shamahan or the Albrechtgnome.
Does anyone have a list of the MPs who voted for which candidate in yesterday’s Liberal leadership race? They usually publish the lists of which MP voted for whom in the papers but I haven’t seen one around in the various publications today
I think people who say, ‘Well I’m still the same’ and all of that, they are deceiving themselves. I think we all change in a way.
[It would importantly differentiate between laying blame on mainstream Australia (which is where i think the opposition comes from) and instead put the blame on the govts of the past….]
But we have a representative democracy, so such a statement would implicitly blame previous generations of Australians for electing the people who carried out those ill thought out policies.
I’ve been laughing all day about the Libs deciding to put their nuts in a blender with Nelson and Bishop.
Couldnt have played it worse! Now they’re backtracking on recantations, Turnbull came close enough to ensure they are divided for 3 years, the Costelloites are still getting screwed, and thats without even factoring in Abbott.
I see a rough road ahead … 🙂
Yo Ho Ho, I’ve never imagined ‘sorry’ to ever be the Government speaking for the Australian people. It’s about today’s government apologising for the wrongs of previous governments.
In relation to apologies from the Australian people, a registry could be set up for people to record their acceptance of a ‘peoples’ apology’. This way, anyone who didn’t wish to apologise wouldn’t need to.
192, I think Shanahan has already started sucking up to Labor.
[Does anyone have a list of the MPs who voted for which candidate in yesterday’s Liberal leadership race?]
Haven’t seen it. The interesting thing revealed in The Australian was that a lot of NSW conservatives who were going to support Abbott supported Nelson instead.
Abbott probably asked them to, given that Nelson will be easier to dislodge at a later date than Turnbull.