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Reviving a moribund WA Liberal Party

By Bernie Masters - posted Tuesday, 28 March 2006


The lack of competent people in the ranks of Liberal MPs is self evident. There are few professional people within the Party, only one lawyer sits in the lower house, there are few farmers, no one associated with the state's largest industry - mining - and no one with tourism experience. The party also needs far more women in its ranks. Football commentators and sports journalists may be good at winning seats at election time but a political party must ensure that the majority of its elected MPs have the ability to write policy, perform in Parliament and be competent in their shadow portfolios in order to keep their government counterparts honest.

The next election in 2009 will be impossible for the Liberal Party to win, in part because of the electoral reform legislation approved by the parliament last year. After the Liberal Party had removed preselection support from upper house MP Alan Cadby in late 2004, the Labor Government re-introduced legislation to reform the state's electoral boundaries and this was supported by Mr Cadby. Eight seats will now move from rural WA into the Perth metropolitan area, with Labor favoured to win six of these seats, the same number currently held by the conservative parties.

But the party is likely to remain in opposition after the 2013 election if it doesn't fundamentally reform itself in the ways indicated above.

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My most severe criticism is directed at those powerbrokers in the both the state Liberal party and the federal Labor party who prefer to remain in change of a party in opposition rather than share their power with a team that might win and form government.

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About the Author

Bernie Masters was the Liberal MP for Vasse from 1996 to 2005 and the shadow minister for science and the environment from 2001 to 2004.

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