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).
1,042 Comments
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EJS
Possum is infallible…clearly there was a late swing which Labor polling picked up
Glen @ 690 Australia already has dedicated technical colleges. It’s called the TAFE system, and the Howard government starved it of funds throughout its term before it suddenly rediscovered technical education and decided to throw money at the problem – but not to TAFE, where students might encounter these nasty unionist teachers. Give us a break!
ESJ. please switch on your comprehension… i was commenting that despite all of the policy detail both sides produce the voter makes a choice based on direction and tone. I didnt say that that was all Labor were offering. learn to read mate.
Thank you for the kind sentiments AG01 but I dont think I am the sort of personality any party (especially the Liberals ) would want.
Hah – the electorate seems to have decided who won the battle of ideas….
ESJ could be parachuted into a safe Liberal seat – Bennelong (oh no, that’s gone) – Higgins, perhaps?
Jenny, TAFE does all sorts of things its a bevy of skills, but technical colleges are for technical skills specifically and i think its a good idea. Maybe you should ask your State Premier why he hasnt funded TAFEs aswell when you trash the tories.
BTW AG01 I agree about the time thing, I am off the air permanently from midnight tomorrow night.
#
697
Edward StJohn Says:
November 30th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Well really middleman I dont see how a fair minded observer could see other than the Liberals did win the battle of ideas.
Agree ….on work choices , climate change , nuclear reactors , new Broadband ,
laptops for all kids , sign Kyoto , water tanks in all schools , Libs “local” management of hospitals etc
Glen one other thing the Tories have never explained is why have they underfunded Hospitals, Tafe and Roads and the ABC throughout the 12 years of their warming the Treasury benches? Too busy producing inflation and interest rate rises were they?
Glen, the ‘T’ in TAFE stands for Technical…..
ESJ. classic debating tactic for claiming the position of the righteous. “how any fair minded observer”… there is no such thing, and i doubt anyone as interested in politics as you are would be able to identify a fair minded observer. i doubt any of us here could ever sufficiently block our prejudices.
I’d hardly all Auslink and Auslink II underfunded roads Steve and ask your Labor Premier why he hasn’t funded hospitals and tafe before you blame it all on the Feds.
ESJ. Never a truer word spoken. LOL
!!
Conclusion
Clearly the Liberal blogers think voters think the 2 Partys policys were the same and the LCP should not change any policys.
Hope the Liberal Party agrees with you
Guess what , the voters will vote the same way in 2010 as 2007
We’ll see Ron.
ESJ. Are you ‘hanging up your spurs’ from tomorrow midnight…what do you mean?
Chris in LDN @ 700 – I think that was the idea. Howard really, seriously didn’t get it. Keating said something interesting on The World Today a couple of days ago (in among his usual self-justifying bull***t), which was that he was brought up in a world where all the dynamism came from the US and Europe, which felt very remote from Australia, but now Australia finds itself in the thick of things. There are so many signs of a sea change in terms of Australian relations with the region, but Howard just caricatured it.
Oh, and I’m on Pollbludger late because my spouse, who’s in IT, is giving a training course in Shanghai …
#654 Glen said:
Glen – are you kicking off a scare campaign?
Essentially I agree with the Latham hypothesis that organised politics in this country is broken.
Unfortunately because of his own bitterness that thoughtful message has been lost on peoplee.
If Rudd succeeds in rebuilding trust and institutions, more power to him. I think real change can only come out of community organisations and groups who avoid government which is essentially the preserve of a small elite in both parties.
I think there is a presumption that I am a Liberal because most of my comments have been about the ALP but that has only been because the ALP was in front and won government. In my view the ALP is marginally more institutionalised than the Liberals because of the union link but only marginally.
Chris in LDN. Yes the Libs thought the idea of selling our mature and highly skilled investment and financial services into asia as some weird joke. what fools. but lets face it, those industries have been built on deregulation and compulsory superannuation (which teh libs fought against) both of which are Labor reforms.
Not blogging here after midnight AG01. In Glen’s terms Radio Berlin goes off the air and its only the werewolves after that.
Jenny. agreed. at a recent IFSA conference an english bloke spoke for an hour on the UK market, and at the end said “I was asked to tell you about lessons Aust can learn from the UK. But really I’m here hoping to learn from the Australian market”. we are a long way ahead. some asian pension funds are still only investing in bonds… and some have equities but only a 5% allocation. we have much we can teach them.
ESJ. OOOOOOOoooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy not sure where its out but I’ll go with it!
ESJ,
Whatever happened to that job at the Australian?
ESj (680) You seem determined to hang on to the myth that Rudd will retain most of workchoices. But I suppose you conservative types have got to cling on to something don’t you, after such an electoral thrashing.
The things that come out.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ministers-sent-report-on-habib-abuse/2007/11/30/1196394625496.html
Later comrades – this princess has to go to sleep – back tomorrow tonight for my swan song (no pun intended).
Well ESJ I’m sad to hear it for will shall miss your wit, good humour and ability to go after both sides of politics.
Hopefully we shall you back in future.
712 Glen, I thought it called the Commonwealth state health care funding agreement because the money comes from our taxes we pay to the commonwealth.
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/V3Key/LA19990526021
As for Road funding it used to be funded 50/50 until the Tories came to power and now the Commonwealth struggles to fund roads at 40%.
It was the commonwealth that cut funding to TAFE and you know it because I have told you before.
Disability funding was also paid out at a lower rate than the states have put money in, so the change of government last week is welcomed by most voters in Australia.
ESJ,
Are you Caroline Overington?
Glen @ 719 – I agree, though probably from a different perspective politically. What I’d say is that democratic politics is seriously broken. We can console ourselves with the change of government at the federal level, but both parties are in trouble at the lower levels, which is where they used to gather their talent. For example, local government, which used to be a great recruiting ground for both parties, was comprehensively stuffed by Kennett in Victoria. You’d have to be a lunatic or a fanatic or just plain corrupt to even want to go there now. The Greens are about the only people who are doing reasonable things locally, and they can do it partly because they care about the local in principle and partly because they aren’t distracted by the prospect of federal power.
730 Spot on. Just what I was thinking
redwombat – one thing that has been interesting in this whole saga is that a lot of the time the ALP hasn’t actually had to do anything. They don’t need to say ‘You have lied”, because someone else, somewhere, is saying it for them. It just gives me a little bit of hope.
Jenny @731.
Total, unadulterated, self serving, crap!
I’m not sure why you say that. It’s happened over and over again during this election campaign – Rudd has taken a very cautiously worded position in relation to something outrageous that the Libs have done, and other people (mostly NGOs) have made most of the running in the critique.
Whoops – I was replying to the wrong post. Re local government, the Kennett trick of amalgamating councils and then reducing councillor numbers has made it incredibly hard for people to ‘do’ local government except as a full-time or heavy half-time job. That’s all I was referring to. And it’s not self-serving at all.
jenny,
1. 15-20k a year as a half job?
2. Politicians are still coming through. Check your local State Government. ( hint see Minister a guy called Dick Wynne).
3. Greens……..Who?, Where?
4. Examples of corruption please!
5. Council elections every three years.
Some of us said at the time that Possum’s extrapolation of Newspoll to show Labor winning Warringah and Wannon was silly, and got called all sorts of rude things for our temerity. We all thought there would be a Drs’ wives swing to some extent, and we were all wrong, but Possum I’m afraid was wrongest. When it came to the crunch, class was the divider, and the liberal bourgeoisie “clung onto nurse, for fear of finding something worse.” It was the ex-Howard battlers wot swung it.
Adam,
For the record (again), wot sung em?
70% WorkChoices, 15% interest rates, 15% bored with Howard. In Qld there was also a “we want Kevin” vote.
Lateline tonight:
Viriginia is Costello’s fluffer.
Both from the southern state, and clearly have worked together previously.
It makes a deeper meaning to the term ‘talking head’, if you think about it in a graphic way.
Whilst fluffing, it is not allowed to ask what it’s been like giving your gonads to your boss to keep in a jar for over a decade, as it’s a ‘deflating’ question.
Fluffees don’t like ‘deflation’, but don’t mind ‘inflation’.
Here endeth the economics lesson. Too hard?
HAHHAHAHAHA
Nelson started crying after WINNING the Liberal leadership ballot!
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22851340-11949,00.html
Turnbull went to his office after, and told him to toughen up.
Adam,
We are clearly in violent agreement! My kids love a happy ending.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=SvBIyJf6el0
1. 15-20 is only a half job if you’re at the bottom of any conceivable pay scale; last time I looked, the average Oz wage was getting close to 60, which means that about 60% of the punters earn less. Besides, if you do a proper job, it’s a damn sight more than half time.
2. I know politicians are still coming through, but what worries me is that they are coming through from the old regime, not the new one.
3. Moonee Valley for one – we’ve got a green mayor. Maribyrnong for another. I only keep track of local politics in my locality, which I suspect is pretty typical.
4. I can’t detail anything for obvious reasons – it would be defamatory – but I can only assume that you haven’t had much to do with VCAT.
5. Yes. So?
Jenny,
1. Most Councils are turning over $90m + a year. Do you seriously want people in office who think that a $15k stipend is a major proportion of their personal income. I understand that being a Councillor is time consuming, but it is a community service issue. Most Coucillors don’t give a fig about the money.
2. Well dooby dooby do!
3. Mung beans for all in Moonee Valley
4. If you can’t be specific about corruption, then don’t talk about it. My cat is called Vee.
5. Democracy broken?
One week on and it never ceases to amuse….
The AEC still is reporting polling places to be returned.
There is no information of indication as to the expected number of postals, absenetee and prepolls. Yes we know the number they have counted but how many were issued….. there really is no reason why this infmrtaion should not be avialable on the monday following the election if not before. There should also be a daily totoal of teh nuymber oif postal vpytes returned up until teh cut-off date. (Unless they are still printing ballots…
)
divisionnmpollingplacesexpectedpollingplacesreturned
Berowra4645
Bradfield4744
Kalgoorlie10396
Lyons9796
Macquarie7068
Maranoa122121
North Sydney4542
O’Connor151144
Parkes108107
Pearce6964
Robertson 5251
Swan4241
Green Growler 745. Council elections in Victoria every four years. (Fixed terms)… We should have the same for the Federal Elections…
JTV at the Howard Election Night Bash – talk about sore losers, and note PIers chatting to Howard.
http://www.abc.net.au/jtv/video/default.htm?clip=howardsparty
And this years SOUR-GRAPES Award goes to Peter Costello for spitting the dummy when his party needed him the most.
Well done Pete!
Puff piece on Julie Bishop being Deputy leader from her local rag.
http://www.postnewspapers.com.au/20071201/news/004.shtml
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