Amateur hour in non-Labor parties

The backgrounds of non-Labor politicians is a further problem. About 70 per cent of non-Labor parliamentarians come from a business and-or are self-employed, if you count lawyers, farmers and business managers, far more so than Labor. Hence they are less attracted to long-term political careers, many have to consider a drop in income to enter politics and given the party's lack of organisational links have to return to their professions if they lose seats or the party goes into opposition.

This is why non-Labor parties perform so poorly in opposition. They quickly shed members as they offer no immediate prospects or places to nurture promising stars.

A further factor is fewer non-Labor members have served in politics-related jobs before entering parliament, about 16 per cent to Labor's 70 per cent. Whether this is good for democracy is questionable, but such Labor careerists do learn their trade in these positions and hence play it better than the non-Labor side.

Recent events in Queensland and Victoria highlight some of these problems.

A couple of weeks ago the LNP in Queensland selected a 19-year-old political science student as the candidate for the very marginal federal Labor seat of Longman.

It was a local branch decision and although the person might have been the best candidate on preselection night, the more important issue is whether he adds to the party's capacity to tackle Labor. The failure to attract a better, more mature, candidate says a lot about the state of the LNP as does the unwillingness of the party executive to intervene.

Of course, in Queensland the amalgamation of the Liberal and National parties and the so-called grandfather clause has meant that all sitting LNP members will not have to face preselection. Consequently, it has prevented the party from cleaning out its dead wood. Safe LNP Queensland federal seats of Fisher and Fairfax are too precious a commodity in politics to be left to the present long-serving incumbents who hold no shadow ministry positions.

And in Victoria, former Liberal Party president Michael Kroger reminded us recently that the ageing state parliamentary team had received little new blood and this was an impediment to possible electoral success this year.

The non-Labor parties are facing a crisis of talent, of attracting, keeping and training it both to fight Labor more effectively and to show the electorate they have the capacity to lead the very governments they covet.

At present, they are not in the game.