Can the new Federal Coalition be an effective Opposition and start acting like a 'government in waiting' ready to lead?

So, the Liberal and National parties have reformed the Coalition, reset its front bench and the Liberals have resolved their leadership.

Fine, but now comes the hard bit – being an effective opposition.

We haven't had one for a while.

What do Oppositions do?

In our Westminster democracy, 'His Majesty's Loyal Opposition' is an accepted and integrated part of the political system recognised in parliamentary practices and processes though not in the Constitution.

Oppositions have multiple functions – to criticise a government, to hold ministers to account, to identify mistakes and even to thwart and harass government through all available legitimate means if they think the proposed policy is harmful or undesirable. Co-operating with government to improve legislation or bipartisanship on some issue is sometimes both necessary and desirable, like after a national calamity where bipartisanship not partisanship is needed - as long as it is not done too often for too long.

What does the Coalition have to do to be an effective Opposition?

Yet an Opposition's most important role in our system, is to be the "government in waiting". It must be more than just a critic or spoiler of government initiatives. Rather, it must be "policy ready" across all areas to convince voters it is ready to start running the country immediately after an election. It is a case of opposition one day, government the next.

Being the "government in waiting" is what distinguishes official oppositions from commentators, interest groups or minor political parties who may criticise a government but neither seek office nor expect to achieve it. They rarely have the full range of policies ready to implement and are prone to make exaggerated promises as they know they will not have to implement them as they will never be the government. They also mistake platitudes as policy.

Being "policy ready" also means being different to the incumbent government to make things better. How effective this is done is what often determines if the electorate will change their vote to put an opposition into office.

Yet being "policy ready" is a big ask for any opposition, even more so for the current Coalition given its structure and the current political environment.

Challenges facing an Opposition wanting to be the "government in waiting"

Loss of numbers

A political party is in opposition because it has loss seats. The Coalition at the 2022 and 2025 has lost a lot of seats in both houses. This means it has fewer people to do the work of developing and selling the policies to expose government mistakes and convince the electorate they are worthy of their vote.

Staffing

The current opposition with just 70-80 staff thanks to cuts initiated last year by the Albanese Government, cannot possibly match the resources of the government with its 400 plus ministerial staff and the large prime ministerial office with nearly 60 staff.

For the Coalition, it is not just staff numbers that is the only problem, but their quality. Attracting experienced staff to an opposition that has lost two elections and been in turmoil since the last, is difficult. That the non-Labor side also lacks, unlike Labor, some sense of dedication to a "cause", makes it harder to attract "true believers" willing to sacrifice careers to work in what must seem at present an impossible task.