Most of the governments in Australia at the state and federal level have been in power for near or over a decade. This is too long. Corruption and hubris have a habit of entrenching themselves after approximately eight years. The federal and state governments now openly use tax payer money to push their party policies, abuse is endemic. The Pittwater result is a poor one, not only for Liberals in NSW, but for oppositions in general.

Opposition

It is all through the Australian media. Anyone but Beazley, Independents beating Liberals in a safe seat with a 25% swing, the Victorians Liberals in a similar media reported stoush ;

But far from feeling any pressure at this stage, the Government is sitting back and enjoying the spectacle of its parliamentary opposition self-destructing. After yet another disastrous week, the Victorian Liberal Party appears to be at war with itself. It's caught up in a destructive internal conflict, one based on personalities not policies, which could result in an even worse result for the Opposition at the next election.

Robert Doyle's leadership is the subject of relentless speculation, even though he has no challenger. Ted Baillieu, the man constantly cited as his rival, has repeatedly declared he is not planning a challenge. But the so-called Costello-Kroger faction, which dominates the administrative machine, has alienated a significant minority of the parliamentary party. And with few exceptions, its preselection process has thrown up a largely mediocre group of unknown or recycled defeated MPs.

So we have the media, constantly claiming the oppositions are in turmoil, and without the authority of government to prove their capability, they end up in a permanent pool of illegitimacy. The media loves drama, Howard's so called "Athens deceleration" was nothing, absolutely nothing . Yet the media continues, or attempts to portray it as important ;

The threat had been made by Costello supporters after Howard, in musings in Athens in April, suggested he could beat Kim Beazley a third time. Some backers have recently pushed the timetable out beyond the budget. They accept the impracticality of a transition a month or so before the budget -- or, if Howard was digging in, the bad vibes that would be sent out by the Treasurer acting up at that point.

But an incumbent government is better placed to fight these suggestions off, having access to legislation, tax payer money, and as Gary Sauer-Thompson is fond of saying capable of drip-feeding the media to guide the public discourse for political ends .

Sections of the media have allowed themselves to become conduits for government spin. The journalists are either on the drip feed or they are content to recycle media releases. Either way they become publicity agents for particular politicians. The feeding is all carefully planned and organized.

The opposition hasn't the same access to the power of the civil service, nor the treasury, so can't create policy, it can only fight "small target" elections.

The state Labor governments and the federal Liberal governments have been in power too long, they are on the nose, and openly abusing the parliamentary system. At a time when we need the state Liberals to be stronger, and federal Labor to be stronger, for the sake of democracy and to at least maintain some form of churn rate, we are seeing them be kicked further and further into the dirt.

More

SSR has covered incumbency numerous times;

• Increasing The Churn Rate
• HOWTO: Offset The Power Of Incumbency
• Offsetting The Power Of Incumbency
• Incumbency Issue Again, NSW Legislation
• Statistics On State And Federal Elections

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More Reading on Opposition

• Opposition
• Waitocracy
• Churn Rate
• Gary Sauer-Thompson
• The Natural Party of Government
• The Cost Of Opposition
• Liberal Groupers