Down and out with the non-Labor parties in 2009

The evidence is that the Greens have been painted into a left-wing corner and the majority of Australians, while progressive, are also famously suspicious of anything smelling of ideological extremes. The absence of the Democrats from the field did not help the progressive cause, but simply removed a possible outlet for the non-Labor vote, relieving some of the pressure the Liberals and Nationals should be feeling right now to jettison conservatism and return to the progressive Australian tradition.

The problems of non-Labor in Queensland are echoed on a federal level, with a Liberal Party hopelessly mired in conservatism, and leaders incapable of forging a new progressive non-Labor force. Costello has proven himself an intellectual as well as political lightweight, while Turnbull seems too much of the patrician to have the necessary broad appeal.

All the non-Labor parties still await their saviour - and this reliance on leadership is the ultimate irony of the liberal individualist parties. Organisationally, they are too weak to make the change off their own bat, but it is this weakness that could allow them to transform rapidly under the right circumstances.

Democracy requires not just a functioning government, but a functioning opposition to drive government forward in the competition for the public vote. While there is no broad based progressive alternative, government will continue to feel little pressure where it counts - at the ballot box on election day.