Australia has the issue of Labor Governments at the state level having been in power too long and atrophying policy wise. Democratically Australians have a habit of voting in managerialist executives. The idealists are few and far between and for the most part we reward buying votes than good governance until the stink becomes too obvious that it cannot be ignored. This was true of Howard and it was true of Hawke/Keating before him.

The state Labor Governments have been fortunate in having uncompetitive Liberal opponents to run against, or in the case of Queensland a divided conservative opposition. There is no way that the Iemma Government would have survived the last election if the Liberals had even a reasonable leader and senior group of politicians. With the demise of the Howard Government at the national level it has meant that Australian governance is dominated by old, atrophying and on the nose Labor governments.

The Rudd government is new to executive power and will probably be weak until they win a second election so governance at the national and federal levels will be timid until either a Liberal government comes in with starry eyed policies or the Rudd government asserts the ongoing expansion of national power over weak and unpopular state governments.

Gary Sauer-Thompson argues that poor planning because of the pursuit of neo-liberal policies. The Liberal Party has a deal to answer for here too. They should be in power in NSW for certain if they were anyway halfway decent as a democratic option. I am old enough to remember Nick Greiner and to think his governance was good. The Liberals are making it way too hard for themselves at the state level.