But the Victorian Liberals not merely have the look and stench of losers about them — they appear committed to maintaining and strengthening that status. A vote for the Liberals is a vote for infighting, lunatic right-wingers and dysfunction. If the party could be towed out to sea and sunk, it would do more good as a piece of marine ecology than in holding a terrible government to account or offering a plausible political alternative.
Victorian Liberals actually interested in being electorally competitive and offering a palatable set of policies to ordinary Victorians, centred around the economy, housing and better infrastructure and health and education services, may have to consider going elsewhere to seek office. Teal candidates and the Greens have demonstrated that it may take several elections to succeed and start supplanting the big parties in parliament, but it can be done. The alternative at the moment is endless brawling on a road to nowhere.
