Alea iacta est

Post-Mortem

Well, it's all over but the hangovers, so there's a few things to be learned from this debacle:

Congratulations to the new Prime Minister. He ran a disciplined, highly effective campaign that stayed on target.

For the Coalition, here's what went wrong:

1) Workplace reform was handled terribly. The Coalition let the media, the ALP and the Unions get the drop on them and control the narrative. If you're going to do major reforms, make it a) gradual and B) For heaven's sake, anticipate that there's going to be a reaction. The union movement had pushed out a huge anti-government ad campaign while the government sat there like stunned mullets.

2) Pork-barreling. This was a terrible habit the Coalition got into it and it wasn't pretty. It went against the core Liberal ethos. Fiscal policy should have been tight budgets, and rolling tax cuts, not dole outs for marginal seats.

3) Take the new government to task. Be an effective opposition, don't lapse into irrelevance like the state Liberal parties.

Which brings me to....

4) Now, more than ever, a concerted effort should be made to win back power in the states. No more pussy footing around with weak, ineffectual leaders (looking at you, Debnam). End the factional silliness, put in a strong, electable leader, and bring them down. It's absolutely criminal a government as incompetent as Morris Iemma's still rules the largest state. The state governments have proved to be good training grounds for ALP parliamentarians.

And finally

5) Generational change. It's a pity some of the up and coming talent like Mal Brough lost, but the Coalition needs to renew itself or it will just sink into the shit. It probably should have done this a year ago (and perhaps avoided defeat), but, too late for recriminations. The only Coalition MP to have a swing towards him was Malcolm Turnbull. Perhaps there's a lesson there...

Posted by Quentin George at November 24, 2007 09:09 PM