Last week, Liberal State Opposition leader, Robert Doyle delivered an address to "re-establish our relevance and credibility and restore people's faith in our party". In fact the address was a capitulation to populist beliefs that was devoid of any policy leadership. Moreover it showed a lamentable failure to understand how recent elections had been won and lost and a total dismissal of the strengths of previous Liberal policies, the fruits of which the present Government is enjoying.
Mr Doyle anchored the Liberals policy future on two legs: education and the environment.
With education, Mr Doyle was effusive in promoting "quality learning" and "inspired teaching", "empowering" students and so on. Education is one of the vital issues for state politics and it is essential that a focus be placed on it. But all we have is waffle and generalities. The Liberals offer no specification about the need for a focus on the three Rs as opposed to the soft subjects that dominate an ever increasing share of the curriculum. Mr Doyle showed no sign of absorbing the lessons of the UK and some US states where carrots and sticks, parental choice and school evaluation have led to improved standards.
A focus on the three Rs would provide voter appeal. This and a radical package to provide improved basic education would also offer an opportunity for the Liberals to differentiate themselves from ALP policy. Because Labor is so dominated by teacher unions, its policy is geared to avoiding scrutiny and on teaching the easy things rather than the more difficult subjects that better fit children for adult life in the workforce.
Mr Doyle also stated his intent to play the green card. With an unfortunate lapse into contemporary Political Incorrectness he referred to the environment as the "crusade of our time". His policy ambit covered the gamut from littering through greenhouse, water quality and a sewage outlet at Gunnamatta. The message was we are going to the dogs. He did offer a hint that he would put in plans to mitigate the sort of forest fires we have experienced -- presumably he meant burning off and fire breaks. Even with this near universally approved approach, he could not bring himself to be specific.
But there are deeper problems with an uncritical acceptance that the environment is falling apart. Such notions are par for the course for "concerned" urban voters who rarely venture outside the main cities. But a dispassionate analysis shows this to be largely incorrect. Water quality is at its best for 50 years in terms of salinity and other contaminants. The Yarra and the Murray are more productive and attractive to tourists and other users than ever before. Urban air pollution is at its lowest levels since the 1880s. Even with the talismanic case of sewerage, data shows e coli levels around Victoria's coastline have not been lower for over a century.
The environment is of vital concern. Where it has gone backwards it is usually because of land being socialised and locked away from productive activities in national parks that are infested with pests, feral cats and other introduced species. The answer to better protection of the environment is to improve property rights, and Mr Doyle might have placed this stake in the ground.
While policies have to be influenced by research that shows concern, even misplaced concern, this must be combined with leadership. Surely, Liberals stand for smaller government, lower taxes, and job creation through allowing individual initiative to prevail. If they abandon these ramparts, not only do they offer little choice to the electorate but they shift the whole political spectrum towards larger government and policies that will lower productivity.
In this respect, Mr Doyle has been quick to jettison the Kennett legacy. He declares times have changed since 1996. And so they have. But disowning the past reforms allows the present government unchallenged claims to their benefits. Among these is a more competitive energy industry, a public transport system that for the first time in 50 years is winning market share and a balanced budget due to the highly successful privatisation program.
It is perhaps of greatest concern that in his major early defining speech, Mr Doyle adopted the me-tooism of NSW Liberal leader John Brogden. Remarkably, Mr Doyle in his address recognised how John Brogden had gone backwards in the recent NSW elections. Unambitiously he said, "We must not allow this to become our fate in 2006". In NSW, Mr Brogden attempted a risky strategy of trying to outflank from the left a conservative but Green Labor Premier. Mr Doyle has announced he is to attempt the same in Victoria.
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