Apathy rules in Victoria

Of course it would be convenient to blame Tony Abbott for the result. That would absolve everybody at a state level of responsibility, thus enabling them to keep their jobs.

Tony Abbott may have been a factor, but not a decisive one. It is interesting that the ALP ran their anti-Abbott television advertisement only in the last couple of days of the campaign.

Blaming the state director, in this case Damien Mantach, also has its pluses since that limits responsibility for the results to one individual.

Regardless of the fact that the Liberal vote improved during the election campaign, Mr. Mantach's problems began well before then with decisions which called his political judgment into question.

For example, in the middle of the year, when the Government needed all the clean air it could get, Mr. Mantach participated in a witch hunt which might have benefited the personal careers of a couple of Liberal politicians but not the Government.

He authorised an investigation into the source of the distribution of a tape of an Age journalist which had been stolen by the ALP revealing (shock, horror) that Ted Baillieu did not like a few Liberal, pro-life politicians.

Despite rumours and innuendo, nothing came of the investigation and it withered on the vine. Meanwhile, however, stories about the inquiry and the suspects occupied the pages of The Age for a week.

The pre-selection of candidates, for which the state director is not responsible, also will be in the minds of some.

Many believe that the candidate for Frankston, which Labor won narrowly, should have been the mayor and that a reason the Liberals did not perform as well in Yan Yean as they hoped, despite allocating substantial resources to the campaign for that seat, is pre-selecting the wrong candidate for that seat.

The Nationals were big losers in these elections before which they had 13 members. Now they have ten. They lost one seat in the re-distribution and did not retain the third Coalition Upper House position in Western Victoria which was always problematic.

Most importantly, they were blind-sided by a well-funded Independent in Shepparton. Worst of all they shot themselves in the foot.

The retiring member Janette Powell and her predecessor Don Kilgour supported a staff member of Mrs. Powell's over a candidate supported by the leadership of the Party.