WRITING this article before I take off on another fishing trip, the on-again, off-again political stalemate that has emerged between the Libs and the Nats is back in the news.
One view is that both parties may well be better off going in their own direction in order to concentrate on becoming the primary choice of voters from their sphere of influence once more.
The Liberal Party once had its base in the capital cities of our nation and is trying to create influence in some larger regional capitals too.
Whereas the Nationals are seen to be the choice of country people and, due to the area covered by regional electorates, they control the largest land mass in our country.
The large losses experienced by the Libs at the previous federal election have seen them reduced to holding only a handful of seats in their onetime heartland, so clearly need to lift their game substantially in order to regain voters’ respect.
The Nats have tried to spread their wings from traditional farming seats to country coastal areas with limited success, potentially due to the influx of city residents to the coastal regions looking for cheaper real estate and better lifestyle.
The best solution may be that each of the coalition partners go back to their roots and locations of origin, and seek to recover their previously held voter bases.
Once they achieve this separately, they could then look to reforming the coalition when they had the numbers to achieve government.
Before any of that can become a reality, both the Libs and Nats need to find new policy areas that interest electors as at the present time.
Their policies aren’t clear and obvious, which is another reason they are losing voter support.
As for their revolving leadership, changing leaders won’t achieve anything as this simply reminds voters there is a lack of loyalty in the party.
Unfortunately, overrated egos seem to be driving the political direction.
This offends many voters who are looking for productive policies to get our nation back on track in order to provide a better economy and safer place for us all to live.
By John BLACKBOURN
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