Poll a warning to Federal Liberals

IT is very hard for Prime Minister John Howard to argue that last weekend’s State election was fought entirely on State issues.

For a start, this was the first election since the introduction of the GST. Also the crescendos of protests at the petrol excise were reaching deafening proportions in recent days.

There were issues of State such as health, education and crime dominating the airwaves in Perth, but it is hard to hide the fact that a number of federal issues impinged on this election.

The performance of the One Nation Party was frightening to say the least.

That a party which has yet to offer one credible policy (remember the suggestion that we print more money) could garner 20 and in some cases 30 per cent of the vote in some seats says something of the naiveté of our electors.

This suggests that if the protest votes that we saw here and are likely to see in the Queensland election due later this week is translated into the federal arena, then the Federal Liberal Coalition is in for a fairly tough time.

The changes that they are proposing to the BAS statements may placate some voters but the groundswell that we saw on Saturday is hard to ignore.