Mr Denmore,

Regarding "hard to sell policies" Thomas Paine made an interesting observation:

"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason"

Yet "Common Sense" (1776) changed American and world history.

It is important to note that there is a spectrum of libertarian views. I am not a big lover of toll roads, yet I think the school voucher has a lot of merit.

Libertarians reject both neo-fascism and socialism. While they are different the end result to the citizens is strikingly similar.

Rob88 - well said!

Also StewartGlass:
"Libertarians reject both neo-fascism and socialism. While they are different the end result to the citizens is strikingly similar."

As one of those, I am still undecided which of the two major parties is the lesser evil to receive my preferences in the next elections.

State duplication is the issue.

It's great to see the Liberal party taking control of water, IR laws, and perhaps Health and Education. The reduction in complexity is what excites a genuine libertarian.

It looked for a brief moment that Rudd would provide better solutions on these issues, as he launched himself with a quite spirited discussion of federalism. However, this agenda has diminished, and the squabble over water initiated by Rann in SA has furthered damaged their credibility. Rudd sold the story that a federal Labor government would work well with state Labor ... but with mavericks like Rann that seems impossible.

For libertarians to be interested in Labor they'll need to show how they can prevent duplication, and streamline the relationship between the states and the federal government.

It should also be noted that the ridiculous spending patterns of the Republicans in the US are not actually shared by their conservative counterparts in Australia: John Howard is far more sensible.

I don't think much can be read into the current cabinets of either Labor or Liberal. It's nice to see Turnbull on the rise from a libertarian point of view: he's there on merit, smart, and knows how to look after himself financially.

One thing is indisputable: The libertarian vote is more than happy to move from one party to the next.