Let the members elect the Liberal leader

Lets face it, the way we pick our political leaders is hopeless. How many leaders does an opposition need to go through before an acceptable person is found? Now that Costello is gone Turnbull is supposed to have Abbott or Hocking or whoever is favor of the month after his job. And I have lost count of NSW Liberal leaders.

Under our two party system the party has to be a broad church with a spectrum of views, without a strong leader to give it direction it will flounder. That leader needs to have a united party behind them, they also need to show they are capable of connecting with the ordinary voter. The current system fails to do that.

There is an alternative. Have the Liberal party members, elect the Parliamentary leader. That's what the Conservatives do in the UK. There the parliamentarians elect two contenders who then go to a postal vote of the members. If they can convince the members to vote for them they have a chance of convincing the ordinary voter. The leader is only changed if there's a spill or a resignation. It would stop the never ending newspaper leadership speculation stories. As well giving the grass roots something useful to do would invigorate the party.

Such a proposal may provide journalist with fewer articles but it may also give the Australian people the leaders they want.