NSW Premier Morris Iemma has been dumped, Treasurer Michael Costa has been sacked and Deputy Premier and Transport Minister John Watkins has resigned.
It has been one of the most tumultuous 72 hours in NSW political history.
As we go to press, the full caucus of the NSW Parliamentary Labor Party is about to meet to elect a new premier — Water Minister Nathan Rees, the 40-year-old newcomer and MP for Toongabbie in western Sydney, or Carmel Tebbutt, the former education minister and wife of the federal transport and infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese.
The catalyst for these dramatic changes has been the failed power privatization push by Iemma and Costa. They dismissed the ALP conference’s vote against privatization and soldiered on to the cheers of the Sydney media, led by The Sydney Morning Herald.
In the process, they created a deep split between the government and the NSW ALP, inflamed tensions between ministers and the backbench and created an environment of simmering rivalries.
In an 11th hour move to save his premiership, Iemma decided overnight to sack Costa, his attack dog during the sell-off misadventure. He acceded to demands by both right, left and centre factions to dump the highly unpopular Costa in the hope that it would lead to a stay of his own execution.
But when the right-wing Centre Unity MPs gathered at State Parliament this morning, they were in no mood to forgive Iemma for his role in the privatization debacle or accept the Cabinet changes he wanted.
By the end, the premier had lost the confidence of his own party, a majority of his ministers and backbenchers, the business community, the unions and the media.
George Bernard Shaw once said: “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”
With that in mind, I am re-producing three quotations from recent Crikey articles on the longest running farce in NSW, the Iemma Government:
On July 31, in “One man standing in race to replace Iemma“, I wrote:
Meanwhile, the idea that Watkins may yet be the party’s white knight beggars belief.
His once buoyant popularity has collapsed to the point where he is electorally unsaleable as the next premier. What’s more, he will be flat out holding his marginal Ryde electorate at the state election in 2011 and Liberal head office has already flagged it as a “possible win”.
Watkins’ position is so desperate he is likely to quit politics in the next 12 months to find a new career”
Last week, on August 28, under the headline “NSW power privatization dead: any life in Iemma?“, I wrote:
The end game of this political drama is yet to be played out. Costa is a goner, but what will they do with Iemma?
AND yesterday, September 4, under the headline, “It’s obvious: Premier Iemma must sack Costa“, I wrote:
If NSW Premier Morris Iemma is fair dinkum about restoring some credibility and cohesion to his dysfunctional government, then tomorrow’s Cabinet reshuffle is a no-brainer — he will sack his Treasurer Michael Costa who has been the chief architect of the administration’s political misfortunes.
Costa bears almost sole responsibility for driving out Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and Finance Minister John Watkins who resigned yesterday pleading “physical and emotional strain” — a medical term for being in the same room too often with Costa.
And so it has come to pass. Iemma, Costa and Watkins are all gone and the Coalition’s Barry O’Farrell is licking his lips.
Alex, nice job on the predictions. Why not quote yourself on Carmel Tebbutt while you’re at it? Something to do with how the fact that she’s married to Anthony Albanese would disqualify her after the Neal/Della fiasco? Which was kinda sexist the first time around and seems sillier the second?
great day for sanity..this gives me a bit of faith ,that the unions still have a bit of sense and hopefully growing support. the sellouts in the labor party,like costa,iemma.and sator,are the best assets the greens have..
Alex I did a blog you might be interested in about the return of Tebbutt fitting neatly with the on then off again smog stacks of the M4 East truck tunnel from Port Botany to Rozelle which would have poisoned Carmel’s seat of Marrickville. I call this the Nathan factor – her 6 year old son, not the new premier created by same bail out from cabinet then return then broader spill with alot of help from Costa and energy assets.
Only one weakness in the scenario – didn’t realise Costa had a blow up at Watkins presaging Watkins bailout. Seeing that pic of Costa with sugar free cola strutting around suggests to me the guy is on the rollercoaster of caffiene dependence let alone any other factors.
What seems so ironic to me is how so obviously the same things could have been said and done by Costa only with mild tones and gravitas and caused only 50% or less of the angst. He might still have got rolled too but not torn his own party so. To do so much wanton damage to his own party and colleagues cohesion is pretty sad. I think he’ll live to regret it like Sir John Kerr.
Great news! but will the new incumbents undo the high-handed actions of Sartor?
Evan – if Nathan Rees admitted to even a whiff of the antics in the Orkopoulos office he’d be back collecting garbage and keeping greens within the month. A lot of people had morning tea with Orkopoulos and thought he was a pretty good bloke too. And yes, it’s difficult to balance a clean career with the workplace particularly if it happens to be an MPs office. For years I covered up for a hapless Minister who like Milton landed in the clink. People such as Sneddon and I are simply asking political parties to grant MP staff immunity in cases such as Orkopoulos’. For some to be given Party protection and others the back door is not what working Australians expect from employers. It’s not what Rudd or Gillard are proposing either – unless it all blows up in their backyard.