It's easy to focus on the success of One Nation in the recent South Australian election. There's a message there for both the major parties. Hanson, however, doesn't acknowledge the proportion of the One Nation vote that was a protest against them rather than a vote for her team.

Nonetheless, plain speaking is an admirable quality and voters are attracted to it. We're just fed up with bland spin. But in the end, voters want a better Australia - solutions to our problems. One Nation hasn't offered them.

In all the political commentary about political success or otherwise, little is said about the role played not by the parliamentary wing of each party, but the backroom organisational arm. It plays a vital role.

At the federal and state level, Labor's ties to the huge monolithic union movement give them an incredible advantage over the Liberal Party. The organisations are like chalk and cheese.

The union movement may not be head office for Labor, but what a difference it makes to them. It provides, indirectly, training and vetting for candidates, volunteer boots on the ground, and no doubt money finds its way to select spots. It provides organisational skills and grunt.

The Liberals have an organisation. It's miniscule. Its success or otherwise federally depends entirely on the strength of the federal president.

They've had some greats. Tony Staley stood out in my time. A former Fraser minister, he was an extremely active and strong president. Ditto Shane Stone, former NT premier, and Chris McDiven from NSW. McDiven is rightly credited along with Dame Margaret Guilfoyle for working over a few years to provide the enormous influx of women into the Howard government in 1996.

Good presidents need to be strong, active and to get things done.

No one would know that former SA premier and senator John Olsen has been federal president since 2020. Sure, no party leader wants the party president out hogging the limelight. But invisibility isn't a good option either. Not for more than half a decade.

Olsen has heaps of experience. He was a local SA member and led them to two successive elections losses. You learn from losing. Twelve years in opposition confirmed that for me. He left state parliament having been gifted a "greener fields" senate vacancy created by a retirement.

Then scandals overwhelmed the state parliament. It looked like premier John Bannon would lose........

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