“…conservatives are struggling to maintain relevance in modern day Australia.”

What conservatives?

The National Party might just scrape in as conservative, but the Liberal Party, which is certainly struggling for relevance, is not in that position because it is conservative. It’s because it is not conservative.

When John Howard was in America on one occasion and met Arnie the Terminator in his role as Governor of California, it was assumed by the Governor that Howard was on the left side of politics because was the leader of the Liberal Party. Not surprising as, in the rest of the world, ‘liberal’ whether big L or small l, means left of centre.

The Menzies Liberal Party was correctly named at the time – it was more liberal than the party it kicked out and which disappeared.

Now, however, it is ludicrous that a party claiming to be conservative should retain the name Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party is no more conservative that the Labor Party is socialist. In fact, there is so little difference between the two parties that it does not matter to the average person which one is on the Government benches. Both parties are opportunist, and will do all sorts of twisting and turning away from their supposed platforms to gain power. The me-tooism of Kevin Rudd is the best example we have had of this for many a year. The Liberal Party will move even further to the left over the next three years to try to regain office.

Any idea that we have a clear choice between a liberal and conservative government in Australia is sheer nonsense. We have very little choice at all

I must agree with Leigh. We're starting to see the first reactions of an electorate betrayed, as Rudd dumps his most progressive ideals one by one.

Last year Australia made a choice between two conservative parties, both of which left the true progressive parties for dust. A Greens or Democrats balance of power in Parliament would have been ideal, but people seemed to vote for Labor on its reputation, and not for what was actually being offered.

there are two management teams vying for power in oz, and both will chase votes by offering bribes to the electorate. this has nothing to do with democracy. would-be emperors used to bribe the mob, and later the roman army.

labor is currently most successful in straddling the hopes and fears of the electorate, but don't imagine this will continue. the personal careers of politicians will bring the libs back to the source of votes, or the labor party will fracture, or the greens will make themselves attractive to a bigger part of the electorate.

the struggle of politicians for dominance won't bring good government to oz, but at least some of the worst excesses of ideology will be filed off. life will go on. or so it used to be.

resource exhaustion and global warming have raised questions about whether oz can afford medieval government systems any longer. continuing to pursue the drunkard's walk of parliamentary politics might be fatal.

An interesting article here. However, in writing that "conservatives are struggling to maintain relevance in modern day Australia", Tucker seems to be suggesting that the contemporary Labor Party is NOT conservative. True, they have an apparently stronger social conscience and are ostensibly more inclusive than the Liberal Party - but it doesn't take a political scientist to tell you that they have moved considerably far from their working-class roots.

I agree, too, with Tucker that there are problems with one party holding the majority of power in Parliament. So what role can the Greens play? I have been a long-time Greens voter, and see this party as providing a genuinely 'progressive' political alternative to the two - rather staid and conservative - major parties. Yet there is still a reluctance amongst much of the electorate to give the Greens a go, either due to ridiculous myths that they are a pack of hapless hippies or the simple belief that they will simply never attain the power of the Labor or Liberal parties.

The times, they are a-changin'. It doesn't need to be either Liberal or Labor.

JAY.... if ANY political party has 'working class roots'....it is divisive, discriminatory, and self interested.

The same applies for any party which is rooted and grounded in the 'business' end of the socio/economic spectrum.

We need a government of ALL the people.. for all the people.. in the sense of having a sense of civic responsibility and genuine national interest.

The smaller issues of Abortion, Gay rights, Gender etc, should not in any way differentiate parties. Those issues should be fought out in the broader public sphere, and they don't impact the bigger national picture and foreign policy.

I'd like to see a more 'apart from government' mechanism in place which would allow those issues to be decided by some kind of consensus or mini referendum reflecting the will of the populace at large.

It is truly tragic when a Government gets elected 'just' because they will benefit 'me and mine' due to our economic status or the colour of my 'collar'.

A sobering article for the "Liberals".

But let’s not forget that Labor have gotten to where they are partly by changing, from Old Labor to New Labor & in doing so, stealing a lot of Liberal ground. The Libs need to do the same. They need to package themselves as a party who cares. They do care – more than Labor do IMO since the Libs are traditionally about putting the country on the right economic footing which is good for everyone whereas Labor care is all too often about pandering to minority groups & unions - bribing for votes which is long term counter-productive to growth.

The Libs look too stodgy & too white & not like a party which represents most Aussies - they look too aloof. Hewson summed up this stereotype. Had the economic qualifications to run the country properly, but no-one warmed to him. Zero marketing skills. Whereas Keating was 80% marketing (& 20% substance). Fraser oozed elitism & insipidness. Hawke oozed charisma. He turned on the water works at crucial moments – embarrassingly juvenile, but hey, if it gets votes.

Agree with Leigh, name change in order. Conservatives is fine.

Agree with Boaz, we need a party which encourages personal (& civic)responsibility, enterprise & at the same time is looking out for everyone as Australians & is inclusive.

But at the end of the day, marketing is a reality. Labor do it better than the Conservatives.