Rarely do you get the opportunity to see a government disintegrate before your eyes. In NSW, we’ve already seen one this year and now we’re watching a second.
Morris Iemma’s government collapsed at the beginning of September with the loss of the premier himself, the deputy premier John Watkins, Treasurer Michael Costa, Health Minister Reba Meagher and the exile of Planning Minister Frank Sartor to the backbench.
Premier Nathan Rees, the 40-year-old left-winger, arrived in the job with the energy, fire and decisiveness of a genuine change-agent.
But instead of driving NSW Inc forward, he’s driven it into the ground. He’s tried to turbo-charge a Model T Ford, floored the accelerator and it hasn’t responded. Instead, parts have fallen off.
Veterans of NSW politics have never experienced anything like this.
How could anyone trust Eric Roozendaal, the former NSW ALP general secretary, and Finance Minister Joe Tripodi, to prepare a mini-budget and then sell it to the population? The widely reviled document is a combination of Treasury-inspired grabs — ending the school bus pass system and canning the $50 back-to-school allowance — and ALP marginal seat pre-occupations which include slashing spending in National and Liberal-held electorates and diverting spending to Labor “winnables”.
Taking away bus concessions to get working class kids to and from school will delight Treasury mandarin John Pierce and his ghastly crew of bean-counters but it sits unhappily next to the $3500-a-day fees to former Reserve Bank governors Bernie Fraser and Ian MacFarlane for financial advice.
And on the subject of political judgement, how could Kiama MP Matt Brown have been considered a possible Planning Minister when, as we now know, he owns 18 properties? Brown was then made police minister but resigned within days after revelations that he engaged in exotic dancing techniques with Wollongong MP Noreen Hay in his office on budget night.
One reason why Rees’s “great leap forward” has fallen in a heap is because he has no professional, independent chief executives in the public service. The politicization of the state bureaucracy and the recruitment of party hacks during 13 years of Labor rule has come home to roost. He is surrounded by nobodies who can’t give orders, they can only take them.
Meanwhile, the government appears in permanent crisis. This leads to inertia and ultimately paralysis. This isn’t new, of course: it started at the beginning of the year when “Mr Dilemma” Iemma was in charge but it has intensified under Rees.
After the sacking of Science Minister Tony Stewart this week, Rees said he would uphold standards in his ministry even “if there’s only one of us left”. This inadvisable remark left the impression there would be more casualties in the future and that he would rule on his own if necessary. A very bad look which showed little confidence in his colleagues and fed the fires of instability.
Normally a government would end the agony by choosing a new leader, staging a Cabinet reshuffle, or calling an early election. However, these options are fraught with difficulty.
Its current plan is to soldier on until March next year when Rees’s “red hot go” will be six months old. Only then will we know whether he will circle the wagons and fight to hold onto as many seats as he can in March 2011 (not many!) or whether he will retire to his suite at the top of Governor Macquarie Tower and place a call to the Governor.
Pretty good analysis Alex but poor Nathan Rees has been receiving a merciless media bashing from day one with no let-up. Sure mincing Matt Brown was a disaster as Housing Minister who grandly announced to Housing Commission tenants that their homes were “a privilege not a right” a few days before his property portfolio was exposed and played nicely into the hands of Clover Moore who announced..”no, housing is a right not a privilege” and was subsequently re-elected as Lord mayor. Having put a leftie Rees in, the NSW Labor right are now testing the poor man’s will. He needs a big brother to look after him. There are lots more knives heading towards his back.
Alex, I love the angle that the Daily Terror and now you are pushing (or should that be puschting?).
The idea that Rees can somehow override both the results of the last election and the fixed term legislation is laughable.
The legislation makes it very clear that the next NSW State Election is due on the last weekend of March in 2011. There is no option for the calling of an erarly election and the legislation was written with that in mind.
The one fatal flaw with wanting to get rid of the current N.S.W. Government is that the alternative is much worse. I’ve spent several days in the Bear Pit watching the half-arsed way that the Opposition tries to attack the Government. They formulate a plan of attack with one or two “talking points” decided by Messers Penberthy and now Linnell slough out in the morning in the Daily Toilet Paper and when they’re exhausted, they have nothing.
I’m not a paid apologist for the A.L.P., if they could be ousted under the rules then they should go but the alternative is worse.
The Libs have been stuffed since Brodgen’s “Mail Order Bride” and subsequent butter knife incident.
Alex Mitchell might one day write an article with some substance. For now all we seem to see is variations on the same old pap – pre-rolled prejudice trotted out as comment on current affairs.
For example [paraphrasing] “There are no professionals leading the NSW public service”.
So they are all spotty kids fresh from Toongabbie High are they ?
Let’s see some new quotes from named sources, let’s see some insight rather than rumour-peddling and band-wagon pollie-bashing.
Yeah sure the State of NSW has problems galore but laying the blame for it all at the feet of the bloke who’s been in the job for 2 months only reduces the credibility of the accuser.
No sloppy Government is going to get any better with this sort of stuff passing as serious analysis.
Play the ball, not the man.
Crikey – I can buy the Daily Terrorgraph if I want to read ranting & raving & recycled ideas.
No disrespect old bean, but News Corp tabloids have provided the political corpse today namely David Penberthy, their own editor, bailing out to ‘special projects’. This broke on abc local radio Sydney at 11 am perhaps past your deadline.
In any case it does look very much related to the ‘power struggle’ here ironically over ‘power assets’ and the ABC have even added a copy of the “sack yourself” headline aimed at Rees on the Penberthy story.
Soooo … what’s it all about? Methinks for a start Stewart MP is collateral damage via the Rudd Mafia freezing Keating out good and proper. As Stewart himself says – how come my chief of staff bailed out with the gopher researcher on the same day? That’s tag team stuff. Stewart has “understandings” such as a “conspiracy”. And frankly I think Mitty Stewart is right. He is collateral damage.
When Keating ran that letter via Ramsey in Fairfax against Rudd that was beyond the pale for any political party, according to well worn convention. You are either in or out of the Party and to attack your own party’s PM – well it’s not tolerable. Criticise maybe but slam? No way. It’s over. Keating must be punch drunk to not get this Pineapple Reality.
Secondly there is a major financial misconception in the tub thumping of the crusaders in the big press for privatisation of the energy assets – where is the money coming from for a favourable sale after the GFC bites hard? It’s a fantasy I reckon like Wall St subprime model and the bubble bursting on hedge funds. Both major dailies are reading like kids in aisle 3 having a tantrum – the privatisation merry go round has stopped and there ain’t no more spare cash in the foreign markets for another spin for quite some time.