Labor was in office from 1983 to 1996. This was the longest Labor had ever held power, and by 1990 as the Liberals lost their fourth election on the trot commentators were starting to think that Labor may have supplanted the Liberals as the natural party of government. The Liberals lost again in 1993, an election they thought was unlosable, after Paul Keating had ousted Hawke from the Prime Ministership. When the party Menzies had formed in 1944/45 celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 1995 it had been out of office for more than ten years. The Liberal Party responded to their lengthening period out of government with a rapid turnover of leaders: as each leader failed to topple Labor – or was thought to be about to fail – he was himself replaced in what became an almost farcical revolving door: Andrew Peacock, John Howard, Andrew Peacock, John Hewson, Alexander Downer and finally John Howard again.

Both Peacock and Howard were experienced politicians, though neither was experienced enough to moderate their rivalry and ideological differences for the sake of party unity. When they failed, the party turned to two untested newcomers. The first was John Hewson, an academic economist who had been an adviser to Howard when he was Treasurer in Fraser's governments and who was a passionate believer in neo-liberal economics. He proved too narrow, with little competence outside economics, and was easily portrayed as a dogmatic zealot.