Late yesterday an email came out from Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Phil Koperberg:

From: Phil Koperberg

Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:00 PM

To: All Staff

Subject:

Dear all,

Tomorrow morning I will be giving a press conference at which I will announce that I intend to seek preselection for the Australian Labor Party in the seat of Blue Mountains which will become vacant upon the retirement of the Hon Bob Debus…

Just as we forecast back in August. And is the second part of our forecast also true – that Koperberg discussed a jump straight into the Emergency Service portfolio with Premier Morris Iemma?

Crikey understands that powerful people on both sides on Macquarie Street are wary of Koperberg. Still, the bloke is in his early sixties. He doesn’t exactly have a long political career ahead of him. The Labor Party normally is pretty strict about not hanging on to seats when you’re older than 65. We’ll know in March – or early April.