Can the Democrats come back?

Theoretically, anything is possible. Turnbull's personal popularity and the huge block of voters showing up as undecideds that would be Democrats, if a Democrat was there to vote for, and people knew what Democrats stood for, will tell you that it is possible.

Then you've got the current environment. The shine wearing off the Greens, a sudden realisation of how much power those minor parties and independents can wield, a dislike of the minority government situation yet neither major party putting forward a leader they want. The best negotiator in the parliament at the moment seems to be Tony Windsor, and more than a few insiders seem to be aching for time when the Democrats were there to respectfully and patiently negotiate a result. For a Democrats return, the environment can cut both ways and needs to be navigated carefully.

And then you get down to the brutal realities. Unless someone puts a fairly large chunk of money in to the party, or several thousand people put a little chunk of money in to the party, enough to enable them to set up an office and a core staff so they can sort themselves out and run a decent campaign, the Democrats will continue to be a nice fading memory.

And a memory it is. It's now over a decade since the Australian Democrats were relevant. All resources of the party are gone, buildings sold long ago, records and memorabilia sent to museums and in random people's garages. Natasha Stott Despoja does her thing to keep her profile up of course, but Natasha is working for Natasha. Even the gains of the last Rebuild effort have since been thoroughly destroyed.

So yeah, it can be done. But to convince Australians that Democrats should be the king makers and tie breakers, Brian Greig will need a good team and a big pile of cash, and at the moment he has neither.

Good luck to them though.