It was barely noticed amid the death throes of the Howard government, but 11 October last year was a significant anniversary: ten years since the Liberal Party last won a state election. Rarely has a major political party endured such a run of failures.

Through that miserable decade, one statistic stands out. The state Liberal parties between them have changed leaders 21 times. Western Australia’s Paul Omodei, less than two years in the job, is already the longest-serving state Liberal leader.

But WA looks like becoming number 22, with reports that deputy leader Troy Buswell has the numbers to replace Omodei at a party meeting today – despite a possible late entry in the field.

Nor is the saga likely to end there; there are murmurings of a change in Queensland, and News Ltd has valiantly been trying to beat up a leadership challenge to Ted Baillieu in Victoria. According to this morning’s Age, Baillieu has convened a meeting of state and territory Liberal leaders for next week “to promote revival”.

There’s a widespread view that a Labor government in Canberra will be just the boost that state Liberal parties need – that without the millstone of John Howard around their necks, they will soon be able to sweep away what are, after all, generally stale and uninspiring Labor governments.

That might eventually happen, but it won’t be automatic. Kevin Rudd’s honeymoon is likely to buoy up his state counterparts for a while, and leadership instability looks like spreading to the federal Liberals as well.

Somehow the state parties need to get their act together and start making progress under their own steam. With the exception of Western Australia, all the state governments are still in the first half of their terms. No-one is focused on elections, and therefore no-one cares much about what the opposition is up to.

That can be dispiriting, but it also means this is the ideal time for a state opposition to put in some hard work on addressing its own problems. Finding half-decent leaders and then sticking to them would not be a bad place to start.