SA Liberals can win if they swap ramping whining and abortion plots for one of these popular ideas | Alexander Downer

If the SA Liberals could take a break from complaining about ramping or abortion plots, they might notice some real issues, writes Alexander Downer.

It’s understandable that the Liberal Party feels deeply depressed by the results sequentially of the last state election, and then the Dunstan and Black by-elections.

To be fair, the Black by-election could not have been held in worse circumstances for any political party. They just have to take that hit and move on.

Some of them are wandering around saying that not only will they lose the next state election but they will lose it badly.

My message is a different one.

Any political party which is well-run, has a degree of internal unity and, in particular, is able to come up with answers to the concerns of the public can win an election. That includes the South Australian Liberal Party.

But that won’t happen without work and without big changes. The usual cries for unity normally go unheeded by the factional warlords.

After all, they thrive on disunity.

Telling the SA state Liberals to stop the infighting hasn’t worked for the last 50 years!

More importantly, the Liberals could build an exciting new program for state revival.

It could be replete with optimism and hope.

City of Holdfast mayor Amanda Wilson, pictured with SA Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia, was heavily defeated in the former Liberal seat of Black. Picture: Brett Hartwig

It could aim to make SA one of the most dynamic and innovative places in the world. They should have that sort of exciting ambition, not just be whiners about ramping.

Here’s what I mean.

Six years ago the SA Liberal Government established an organisation called the SA Productivity Commission.

It’s a completely nonpartisan, intellectually credible think tank, which analyses the state of the state and makes recommendations for a way forward.

Its reports largely go unnoticed, which is a tragedy. Instead of squabbling over abortion and branch stacking, the SA Liberals should read them. They tell a sorry tale but they have good ideas.

Here are five take-outs:

First, SA’s population is getting older and is the oldest of every mainland state. Secondly, our workforce is the least educated of any state. Thirdly, our share of national exports is steadily declining.

In 2000, 8.2 per cent of Australia’s exports came from SA; now it’s about 3 per cent. Fourthly, our productivity rate has been falling faster than anywhere else in Australia, and you can’t have rising living standards with falling productivity.

And, finally, the result of all this is a state with declining real wages, spiralling state debt and the second-least affordable housing in Australia! That’s us!

Not everything is bad: SA growth has been worse than the national average for most of the past three decades but over the last three years it’s been better, thanks to strong agricultural commodity prices and good seasons.

Liberal upper house member Ben Hood with supporters of his Abortion Reform outside including Liberal MPs Nicola Centofanti, controversial Adelaide Uni professor Joanna Howe, and MPs Laura Henderson, Sarah Game, Heidi Girolamo. Picture: Paul Starick

But, sadly, that won’t last. And unemployment is very low, even though real wages are falling.

All this is an environment rich with opportunities for an ambitious and creative political party. Not only could they run the negative story about falling real wages, poor export performance and education. They could create a new and exciting narrative of what they would do if elected.

Three or four strong themes would do.

For example, if we want to increase real wages by improving productivity, we need to increase substantially research and development, including business R and D.

At the moment SA has the lowest level of business R and D of any state. The amalgamation of the two universities offers an opportunity.

So does the evolution of new technologies such as AI. And the federal government’s investment in defence industries in SA should be leveraged.

If we can attract investment in new technologies, get entrepreneurs to establish their businesses in Adelaide and get university researchers to work more effectively with investors, then we could see Adelaide emerge as a technology hub.

Part of the key to any successful society is energy.

Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Without developing cheap and reliable energy, we’d all be stuck in the Stone Age. But SA now has some of the most expensive energy, not just in Australia, but in the world.

The Liberals need a radical, new and creative energy policy. The present policy of windmills and solar farms sounded grand 20 years ago.

But it’s proved eyewateringly expensive to the consumer, it prices businesses out of SA and is unreliable.

Again, there’s plenty of scope for new, exciting policies which will inspire the state.

The SA Liberals could capitalise on Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy and revisit the brilliant Scarce royal commission on nuclear storage.

We’d be contributing to stable energy supplies and safe global storage for the world. And we’d add billions a year to hospital and school funding – no more ramping!

You see my point.

There are dozens of great ideas that could transform a political party struggling to stay alive into an exciting and dynamic movement.

But remember, politics is a battle of ideas and if you don’t have any ideas, you’re not even in the battle.

So there’s a great opportunity for the Liberals to re-create themselves in time to be a real force at the next state election.

But they’d better get on with it pronto and spare us any more abortion initiatives!

Alexander Downer was foreign affairs minister from 1996-2007, and high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014-18.

Originally published as SA Liberals can win if they swap ramping whining and abortion plots for one of these popular ideas | Alexander Downer