Time for Labor to go
Today may go down in history as the day NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, is shunted to the back bench in a revolt led by the party's right wing. Leadership contenders include Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, and back bencher, Frank Sartor.
God help us all if Mr Sartor becomes Premier. It is my belief that he will completely ruin this state if allowed to lead the Labor Party even if only to the next election which is still more than a year away.
Ms Keneally I am not so sure about. In her favour she has managed to keep herself out of the spotlight. Against her lies her relative inexperience and short length of service in the Parliament.
Sadly, the Labor Party in NSW can appoint as many leaders as they want but nothing will remove the fact that whoever is Premier tonight will lead a bunch of people who have no answers to the many problems that face this state. The key areas of responsibility; public transport, health services and education are all suffering from chronic funding shortages and a projected public debt of $42bn looks likely to be achieved.
Labor has no answers to these problems but there isn't much that can be done about it until the 26th March, 2011 because the state's constitution was changed at a referendum in 1995 to fix the length of terms to four years except when the Governor chooses to exercise reserve powers. We are stuck with a Labor government in NSW for another year and four months but tonight we might have a new Premier, the fourth since 1995.
Update: Kristina Keneally will become the first female Premier of New South Wales after she managed to topple incumbent Nathan Rees in Labor's leadership spill tonight. After the leadership spill motion was carried in the Labor Party caucus a motion to dump Mr Rees was carried by 47 - 21.
Ms Keneally is closely aligned to Labor's right-wing powerbrokers, Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid and The Right is also host to Frank Sartor, who Ms Keneally replaced as Minister for Planning.
If history is to repeat itself, not once but twice, Ms Keneally will follow in the footsteps of two other female Labor Premiers, Joan Kirner and Dr Carmen Lawrence, and take Labor to a nose-dive election loss in 2011.
I am looking forward to seeing Barry O'Farrell annihilate Ms Keneally at the polls in just under two years. NSW needs a Liberal/National government once again to help bring balance back to the force and eradicating wall-to-wall Labor.
Written at 11:53 on 3 December 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
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