The power and the glory: Australia’s politicians face an upheaval

The Liberals badly need a formal merger with the Nationals to give them a new lease of life. For the last few years, they have given the impression of just going through the motions of politics, mainly because they have not been able to decide whether they are Conservative or Liberal.

The fire that they had in their bellies when John Howard beat Paul Keating is not there anymore. They have descended into an unfortunate culture of extreme negativity, and are competitive only because of the turmoil in the ALP caused by Kevin Rudd’s failure as Prime Minister and the Gillard government’s painfully slow recovery from it. They are now in the strange position of being streets ahead of the government in all the polls, yet their leader is only line ball with the Prime Minister in the same polls. They will probably win by default, but their image is not that of a competent alternative government.

This, finally, leaves us with the ALP. Pollsters and pundits universally have written them off, not just for the next election, but forever.

Their condition is diagnosed as being terminal and, furthermore, the Prime Minister is regarded as having reached a stage where no-one seems to be listening to her.

Some have said that the ALP brand has been destroyed beyond repair.

Those statements are a bit extreme, and I doubt that they represent the actual position. The government is in trouble - of that there can be no doubt - but I reckon that it’s premature to forecast that the Coalition will win the 2013 election in a canter, as they have to overcome some internal weaknesses to get there.

Once the election is over - and irrespective of who wins - the ALP will have to make some monumental changes.

Its future lies in removing the word Labor from its title, as there are no labourers left in Australia, nor are there any ‘working families’. They now regard themselves as belonging to the middle class.

Most importantly, the ALP will have to divorce itself from its trade union base, as this alliance loses it a lot of votes. I say this as the son of a life-long member of

the Australian Worker’s Union. My father regarded his Union far more highly than he did the ALP, and believed that Unions should have a working relationship with all political parties, not just one.

In the same way, the Liberal Party has to divorce itself from the big end of town and become a party whose power base lies with small business and aspirational Australians.