What do we make of McCarthurs loss?

It's very easy to be smart. While it would have been very sensible if the Liberals had fielded a younger candidate , noone who knew Stuart could really say he was not hardworking for the rural sector, and it will be truly amazing if the new guy fills his shoes in that regard. The real problem was the complacency and incompetence in the Liberal party in particular. The problem from the point of view of we who have supported him and the conservatives generally ( often at our own expense ) is The Libs lack of credibility in a number of key planning areas like health, labor relations and the environment. They think they know, when they are out of touch with those who clearly do. see for eg
We had a good time on the hustings , not because we agreed on much, but because we all got to talk more deeply about things that many in the community do not seem to care about. On election day here, we talked directly amongst ourselves across party lines about the challenges that the Libs faced .

To keep the power you have to cut it where it counts - in the credibility stakes .If you are not credible, or even too arrogant to listen the people who know, go quiet.
To be sure, with all the birdbath antics and shallow splashing, there is a great risk of superficiality and unsubstance driving the resul; but, at the end of the day incumbents need to punch hard at what's being talked about - the local libs were too comfortable about their "right to rule "--

The best form of defence when your in for 11 years is attack -- they didn't attack the simple rhetoric and make the most of competent alliegances ; ties that clearly could have worked for their benefit - we know because we know from talking to them , who the libs were really listening to . More could be said of course, but Yes the Libs need to take a very good look at themselves and No - it's not before time.