"His narrow win in May 1976, followed by landslide victories in 1978 and 1981, not only revived Labor spirits but demoralised the New South Wales Liberals," Mr Howard said delivering the 2013 Dean Jeansch Lecture at Adelaide's Flinders University on Tuesday evening. "The moral of this story is simple: never underestimate the recuperative powers of either of Australia's major political parties." The unrivalled elder statesman and hero of the Liberal Party, Mr Howard is equally reviled on the political left both for his electoral success in winning four federal elections on the trot, and for a series of uncompromising policies including his stance on immigration and asylum seekers. While Labor can take heart from Mr Howard's upbeat assessment, the 74-year-old was actually sending a warning to his own party as it embarks on a golden period. Having just won through federally and with conservatives governments safely installed in all but the two smallest states (Tasmania and SA), Liberals are confident of bagging the fabled clean-sweep before too long: wall-to-wall conservative governments in all states and nationally.

The Labor governments in SA and Tasmania are under immense pressure and both are expected to get the chop when they next seek the voters' verdict. Mr Howard said Labor's clean-sweep at the beginning of the Rudd period, which he described as "the dismal landscape" had begun breaking down quickly and within six years was almost completely gone. The same therefore could happen to the Coalition parties. Mr Howard even acknowledged that Labor's new leadership ballots involving members had played a useful role in restoring hope in ALP supporters who would have been "dismayed" at their party's leadership wars. "To be consulted about who the next leader should be would have given them a reason to think about the future, rather than brood about the past, and a sense of relevance," he said.

Loading "That having been said, I believe the system adopted by Labor is a long-term mistake, and I fervently hope that the Liberal Party will not be tempted to mimic it. "In a parliamentary system, the most important relationship a party leader has is with those who he or she immediately leads, namely their parliamentary colleagues ... power in a political party should be pyramid like. The mass membership should pick the parliamentary candidates; they in turn should elect the leader. The shareholders elect the board of a company; the board chooses the CEO."