They'd waited for this. For 16 years, and through three failed campaigns they had waited.

However, the man who delivered all they wanted was in no mood to indulge them.

"Young Will" Hodgman was introduced to the Liberal Party State Council with a video highlighting his thumping election win and some shots of pained Greens MPs thrown in for kicks.

However, in a largely measured speech, Mr Hodgman insisted that the hard work was still in front of them.

He thanked the crowd, his party and his front bench, telling them his government had a plan, and was methodically going about its business.

Shortly after the speech and with the scones still warm, he left.

That same day, the Liberal Party membership gave the government ringing endorsements to use its majority to tackle two political hot potatoes - local government mergers and the Hare-Clark system.

The motion for local government support was largely in line with the government's position of asking, but not demanding, councils to consider amalgamations and resource sharing.

The other motion was far more radical - asking the government to investigate how the state could move away from multi-member electorates in the state's lower house.

But within hours the issue was dead, with government insisting that Hare-Clark would not be changed, reviewed or spoken about unless in hushed tones during this term of Parliament.

It seems the government has little appetite to open another can of worms before dealing with the plate of invertebrates it already has in the forms of public sector cuts and the mess at Triabunna.

The rationale from the Liberals' membership was that Hare-Clark had been hijacked by the Greens, independents and fringe groups and did not give the party fair representation.

While some were tempted to joke that those speaking out against Hare-Clark might have been on holiday in March, when the Liberals won 15 seats (including four out of five in Braddon), there is clearly some residual angst over the party's near miss at the 2010 poll, and a desire to cash in now that majority government is a reality.

In any case, the government would have been foolish to make such a dramatic change under those nakedly political terms, especially since single-member electorates might not necessarily be the panacea the Liberals hope for.

With 25 single-member electorates of around 15,000 voters, it's not difficult to imagine state elections descending into hyper-local bidding wars, with parochial independents making it to Parliament on the back of one or two issues.

However, restoring the House of Assembly back to the pre-1998 level of 35 seats while maintaining Hare-Clark could be a better result, and possibly keep all parties happy.

It could lead to a greater depth of talent on the backbenches and ensure a fairer and proportional representation for voters, which was the point of Hare-Clark in the first place.

If the government gets serious about reducing the number of local councils, it could also serve as a trade-off for any perceived loss of local representation.

And here's the kicker for the Liberals - with 35 seats, they would be harder to remove from office.

As it stands, their "comfortable" majority is gone if they lose just three seats in 2018, and the state is back to a hung Parliament situation, which no-one seems to want.

However, with a little boldness, and maybe some tripartisanship, Mr Hodgman might be able to keep the Liberals' party going a little longer.