The cult of the leader is not the answer to revive political parties

One consequence of this cult of the leader is that is easy to blame the leader when things go wrong, and thus also so easy to fix - just change the leader and all will be well. How readily parties do this we saw on election night when colleagues and commentators were so quick to condemn Morrison for the election results and the subsequent quick replacement by a new leadership team.

How convenient is this for all concerned. It allows senior party members and officials to abrogate any responsibility for the government's defeat and mistakes. More importantly, parties avoid confronting more fundamental problems, such as the parties' growing factionalism, policy temerity, declining membership, and ideological confusion - issues that have been simmering for a decade and were the real reasons for the coalitions' failure this time round. This also allows the electorate and the media to quickly switch attention to the new leader.

All this is saying that no-one should expect the new Liberal and National leadership teams, regardless of your views about some of the personalities, to alone be able to restore their parties' political fortunes overnight. Nor should these parties do nothing and patiently wait for the electoral pendulum to swing back their way. That is too simplistic, too easy and ignores the inherent challenges facing all political parties in modern day Australian politics today. It needs a more thorough rethink about the roles and structures of parties and their beliefs.