Politics in the 21st century: Labor first, Liberals last

One problem in holding so few seats is the corresponding reduction in resources. Seats mean money in terms of staff and electoral presence, so the Liberals find themselves in something of a catch-22: fewer seats, means less resources, which makes it harder to hold the seats you have, which means you lose more seats, and so on. It is a case of diminishing returns.

It is a reasonably fair political fight in the north with 13 Labor to the Liberal's eight - at least enough for a contest. But look at the south: 15 Labor to the Liberal's four. That's right, just four Liberals, state and federal combined, stationed south of Oatlands.

Tasmanian Federal and State Members - Electoral Offices 2008
* Cartyna Bilyk does not take up office until the new Senate is sworn in 1 July 2008

So it is no wonder the Liberals faired so badly in the south at recent state elections. Only one state member in each of Denison and Franklin, compared to Labor's three in each. No federal House of Reps and just two Senators. At every election Labor has the resources to put behind their candidate; resources the Liberals cannot match.

If that looks bad enough for the Liberals, it gets worse. Labor have the benefit of incumbency at both state and federal level. For example, Eric Abetz (I am told) has gone from 14 staff as a federal minister, to four as an opposition Senator.

I don't know how many staff the 15 southern Labor members would have in total - no one outside the party would - but a conservative estimate must be at least a 100 souls. The four Liberals would be lucky to muster, say, 16 between them.

Now, that's not a fair fight. But who says it should be?

We all know that political favour is cyclic and that the Liberals will, one day, come back to prominence. Those that have pronounced, with the defeat of John Howard, the end of the conservative politics in Australia are being far too premature.

Australian needs a viable conservative alternative at the ballot box to allow our Westminster system of government to operate successfully. Dominance by one political party cannot be good for democracy. It is certainly not good for Tasmania.