Self-indulgence and a diffident premier are combining to create the real possibility of political instability in New South Wales or — the nightmare scenario — a NSW Labor government.
Already struggling to assert its supremacy under Gladys Berejiklian, the NSW government is now racked by a spectacularly self-indulgent squabble between junior minister Ray Williams and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet over the head-scratching issue of the latter wanting the former’s seat, which just happens to be his own former seat as well. That Perrottet is deputy leader makes the whole thing outright farcical.
The fact that the NSW Liberals are engaged in civil war isn’t really new, but the timing is spectacularly awful. Nothing could be calculated to confirm the Liberals’ current reputation in the electorate for self-indulgence and navel-gazing than two ministers brawling over a game of musical seats just weeks after a Sydney prime minister was knifed in an insurrection encouraged by a former Sydney prime minister, who just so happens to be facing an insurrection in his own seat.
According to one weekend poll, NSW Labor — the party that gave the state its worst corruption since the Askin years and perhaps in its history — is now on level-pegging in the polls with the Liberals, despite a next-to-useless leader being stalked by a rival and virtually no policies. There’s a real risk of minority government — ask Nick Greiner how well that works in NSW — or even of a NSW Labor victory.
The matter would be of parochial interest except to the extent the NSW Liberal shenanigans perpetuate the damage that the betrayal of Malcolm Turnbull has done to the party federally, and that the NSW economy is threatened by the return of Labor just eight years after they were ousted. Under the Liberals, the NSW economy has prospered: between the ousting of Labor in early 2011 and now, unemployment has fallen from 5.1% to 4.8%, but that’s while participation has risen 1.6 points to over 65%, the highest level in the state’s history.
Much of this has to do with the surge in infrastructure investment under Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird and Berejiklian, which helped lift national public infrastructure out of the trough it went into under Tony Abbott. Much of that has been in projects like WestConnex that NSW Labor, eager to court the NIMBY vote, has opposed.
But it’s been in health that the NSW Liberals have achieved their best job results. Between 2011 and now, the number of workers in the NSW health and social care sectors has grown by fully a third to over half a million people. This has in turn driven a big rise in female employment and participation: female participation has risen by more than three percentage points in NSW and the number of women working in NSW has risen by 19% since 2011.
Those are strong numbers even for a large state — and encompass a period of relatively poor economic performance nationally after the election of the Abbott government.
But all of that is in danger of being forgotten as two ministers engage in an ego-driven battle that will infuriate voters. Rarely has a party less deserved to return to government than NSW Labor, but their opponents could hand them that victory and expose NSW, and the broader economy, to substantial risk.
I’ll just remind you why we recently have a by-election in Wagga Wagga and it wasn’t anything at all to do with the ALP
Bernard, judging current Labor now purely by its record prior to 2011 record is a bit much. They got rid of the nasty elements then. This is now 7 years later – an age in politics. Have a closer look at current policies of Labor. Do they stack up to good future governance or not? This is the issue.
Bernard seems to have joined the Anybody But Labor tribe.
I suspect that Gandhi could be the leader opposing Mao at his height and Mr Keane would still be bleating on about how an ALP government would lead to death and destruction across the land.
Sad, I used to appreciate his writing.
the liberal fanatics and apologists will try anything to perpetuate the continuence of the conservative cause even though its plain to see the liberal/national brand is finished and only hanging on till the next NSW state and federal elections, the only policy this rabble and its media mouth pieces have is
BLAME LABOR, they dont seem to able to grasp that this paronising bullshit assumes the average voter is as stupid as their ever diminishing redneck base, so desperate now they even claim a poll that shows them only losing by 20 seats instead of 30 as some sort of victory, scummo thinks he`s jesus and this is the second coming and simply praying to his anti christian god will deliver him victory, well good luck on that theory scummo.
Labor’s corruption was cheap: you could keep many Obeids in clover with the money made from the rezoning in single “priority precinct”.
Rarely has a party less deserved to return to government than the one currently in charge..