What is to be done

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).

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,042 comments on “What is to be done”

Comments Page 5 of 21
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  1. Once the apology happens, people will realise the sky hasnt fallen in – and it was just a decent thing to do.

    Then the Libs will look like complete pillocks, and worse, irrelevant ones. cant be undone.

    They should have stuck with Mal’s u-turn.

  2. ESJ: shows how little you know again, Colbran’s opponent in the preselection was female, so she couldn’t have been Union Guy #3.

    The preselection was done under normal ALP process in May last year, long before Rudd took over and even longer before Rudd gave the National Exec the right to overturn any preselection and put in a candidate of their own choosing. Vote was something like over 200 to less than 100. Who says the ALP machine favours union officials?

    The whole thing in Herbert isn’t anti-Maccas, it’s the defence force vote that is voting Liberal. Remember the swing in Herbert was 6.2% to the ALP, which is above the overall swing.

  3. ESJ: if you’re talking about hack political candidates winning seats, Alex Hawke comes to mind – did anyone else notice there was quite a swing against the Liberals in Mitchell?

  8. 199
    ShowsOn

    It was obvious that Tony People SKills (or TPS, Terminal Papal Syndrome) was going to set his crew against Malbull. Imagine a ‘liberal’ running the Liberal Party…oh my god, he just could not let that happen!

  10. I got a questionnaire from the “your rights @work” people the other night. One of the questions asked what can th YR@W campaign do or continue with now the election has been won?

    I responded that the Australian union movement needs to do a PR campaign to lift its public profile as it is susseptable to being bashed by the media as well as the Liberals as a unloved 19th century OLGER that destroys jobs & wealth.

    The union movement has helped Australian worker with attaining better pay & conditions for over 100 years now but it need to define itself better in 21st century to its relevance in relation to IR, social justice & public perception.

    Australia needs better outcomes for its workers thru its unions. Unions that not only perform in IR advocacy but also are seen as a positive contributer to the economic viability to our country fortunes as well.

  11. HH: All I can work out is that something in the early 90’s turned them off Labor and they’ve been following the Libs since, but I think generally the defence will go the way of the government once a government changes. This is because no one accuses spending money on defence as pork barreling.

  12. Oh well, the residents of Herbert won’t be getting any government largesse for the next 3 years – that’s what they get for reelecting that prick Lindsay.

  13. JV @ 191 It’s not an either/or scenario but a both/and scenario. Rudd’s religious beliefs and his social views re justice etc would, I’m sure, be informed by both his faith and his intellectual enquiry. His is not an unintelligent faith. Nor is he a fundamentalist who accepts his religious views unquestioningly and forces them upon others who are expected to also suspend their disbelief and submit. As I say, Mr Rudd’s faith is part of who he is. His decisions will undoubtedly be based to large degree on his values which will be based, in part at least, on his faith. You will find that this will make him firmly committed to social justice – hence his recent concerns re the homeless.

  15. Howard Hater, there is something inherently conservative about having an army-oulook despite the fact that some of the best ALP men are ‘into’ the whole defence thing… like Kimbo is a big defence history nut, and is apparently going to Uni of WA next year as a Professorial Fellow in the Politics Department.

    But really, you’d have to be into the whole individualism and self-discipline philosophy and that is what both the army and the Libs have in common. That, and a belief that wars solve a lot of foreign policy problems.

  16. I still have very fond memories of my childhood when I was sitting on the verandah with my dad and grandad singing those moving and uplifting songs:

    Avanti popolo, alla riscossa
    Bandiera rossa, bandiera rossa
    Avanti popolo, alla riscossa
    Bandiera rossa trionferà

    and

    ???? ??, ????????? ?????????
    ??????? ????? ?????,
    ??????? ?????? ????? ?????,
    ?? ???????? — ???????!
    ? ???? ???? ??????? ??????
    ??? ?????? ???? ? ???????, —
    ??? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?????? ??????
    ????? ????? ????? ?????.
    |: ??? ???? ??? ?????????
    ? ??????????? ???.
    ? ???????????????
    ????????? ??? ???????! 😐

  17. Howard C at 177
    Unfortunately these won’t stack up as sustainable now, in Victoria or anywhere else. Every single one of these points was trashed over the entirety of the past 11 years. Look at the 3rd & 4th ones for a start:

    ‘We believe in upholding the Constitution, parliamentary democracy, the democratic process and accountable government.

    ‘We believe in equality before the law.’

    It’s back to the drawing board at Lib headquarters I’m afraid (I wonder where that is)

  18. 200
    Lefty E

    Agree completely about the ‘apology’.

    It’s not a problem to try and heal some awful race relations by expressing sorry to a people who have known so much more than a bearable share of it.

    Any heartless bastard that cannot see that, or wants to hide behind some jibberish semantics is not qualified for ‘public’ life. We, the public, know what it means, and we do not need some suburban solicitor to parse it for us.

  19. And yet a lot of soldiers/ADF recruits come from working class backgrounds, which makes you think they’d be more disposed to vote Labor. Puzzling to say the least.

  20. Yes, Shanahan’s re-ducation has been swift, but others need some time to accept that the natural party of government is no longer the party of government.

    La Trioli’s radio programme in Sydney has been wall to wall Liberals all week, bravely explaining why the heaven’s have, if only temporarily, realigned themselves.
    And this morning she had the wonderfully inpartial Bruce Shepard ex-AMA president explaining just why Half Nelson was deserving of sainthood, and at the same time ponting out that the AMA was not a union. Heavens no.

    I think that it’s all been a bit much for Virginia, what with her party’s defeat, and the meltdown of her great friend Caroline the slapper Overington.
    This morning she referred to the Liberal leader as Brendan Turnbull, then tried to explain it away be stating that Turnbull was the deputy anyway, so she was half right.
    Please try to keep up Virginia. You are a Walkely winning journalist, after all. Just like Caroline

  21. Funnily enough, because the Defence Department is always exempted from efficiency measures / budget cuts that apply to other public service agencies, it is the most wasteful inefficient department in the Public Service by a country mile.

    They have had qualified audit reports in terms of their financial reporting for about 6 years in a row now. That means that the auditor can’t be satisfied that what they have reported as their financial position is in fact correct. Should be a national scandal but no-one seems to care.

    It could do with a fine-tooth comb run over it and a lot of the waste trimmed. Never happen though, no government can be seen to be ‘skimping’ on our national defence.

  22. 215 translation from Russian

    There has never been any saviour of the world,
    Nor deities, nor emperors on which to depend.
    To create Mankind’s happiness
    We must entirely depend on ourselves!
    We shall retake the fruits of our labour,
    And let the mind burst free from its prison cell.
    Let the flames in the furnace burn red-hot,
    For only when the iron is hot will we succeed in forging it!

    This is the final struggle,
    Unite together towards tomorrow,
    The Internationale
    Shall definitely be realised.

  23. Kirribilli Removals @ 192

    …but I suspect he won’t be attending the ‘professional’ funerals of either the Shamahan or the Albrechtgnome.

    I would. With a ‘professional’ wooden stake, just to make sure the buggers really were ‘professionally’ cactus! 😉

    And then I’d start applying some of my time to working out how to rid this country of Rupert’s dark influence. IMuHO, we don’t need foreigners pursuing their own international agendas interfering in our national affairs.

  26. HH: Actually, Rudd promised the money first. Please tell me that Labor is going to have a Senator based in Townsville. That way they Senator can take credit for what the government is about to do for NQ, especially Townsville.

  28. Nothing that Greg Combet cant fix Howard Hater. He can deploy some of that unctuous charm on those poor rubes in the ADF hey?

  29. [It could do with a fine-tooth comb run over it and a lot of the waste trimmed. Never happen though, no government can be seen to be ’skimping’ on our national defence.]

    Well if you are going to do anything about it the first year of a new government would be the time. Plus it has the added political benefit that the new Leader of the Opposition was the last Minister for Defence, so if Tanner / Swan can prove there is extensive waste in Defence, on top of the Super Hornets, they can lay the blame with Nelson.

  34. 222
    MayoFeral

    Oh yes, slaying the Jabberwocky (oh, frabjous day!!!) was one thing, but smothering Rupert the Bear, cautiously and deftly, will be another thing entirely.

  36. I give Jason Young a good chance of winning Bowman: the postals have actually gone his way, unlike for his Labor colleagues in other places.

  37. 209 Unions should have to justify their existence as a service provider to the workplace. They will have to wean themselves off the politics and the Labor party and learn to just deal with the injustices, OH&S, how to prepare a productiivity case etc. The asbestos campaign is a great example.

    Uni unions have the same problem.

  38. Matt Price was offered the job of Mark Latham’s press secretary:

    “[Price was offered jobs at] Nine, Seven, editor of the Bulletin, West Australian, Mark Latham’s press secretary, host of Media Watch, the list goes on”

  41. Adrian (#219)
    Has there been any word on the future of the Slapper, Ms Overington?
    Wonder what someone has to do to get sacked from the Australian?…….oh yeah, demonstrate journalistic professionalism.

  45. HA David: I still love hating Howard, but I guess I should change it LOL

    Problem is none of the current crop seem worthy of investing anything more than contempt…

  48. HH; a lot of working-class people vote Liberal, think ‘Howard’s battlers’

    ed@bennelong: I have no idea how on Earth you can explain why you think unions should just be service providers when their biggest role is in advocacy for the workers/students. And I don’t just say that as a former union staffer/student politician either…. You sound Tory-esque in seeing an advocacy body as ‘service provider’, which is exactly what the Libs tried to do with the VSU at unis.

  49. Ed@b. Its hard for the unions to separate from the Labor party when the Labor party was born from the union movement. Unions that dont perform normally amalgamate with a larger or similar union.
    I guess there are some union bosses & organiser that can lift their game. It always good to have a union that shows up when required rather than one thats in the bosses pocket & pay only lip service.

  50. Progressive 243 I am not scared of knives. I love using scalpels and I have successfully operated on Malcolm’s brain by separating his 2 frontal lobes. I have made him what he is today.

    I remember fondly when I had the same operation and it was so much easier afterwards to forgive myself for my communist upbringing. I recommend it highly to all and sundry.

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