Thursday, December 03, 2009

Political death of NSW Premier Nathan Rees - bring back three year terms

Following the Federal Liberals implosion over policy, NSW Labor has continued its implosion based on issues few outside the Party can understand. In the latest round, Kristina Keneally defeated Nathan Rees for the Premiership, the fourth Labor leader in as many years.

I really don't know how to explain to those outside NSW the intricacies of NSW Labor's tribal politics. We just have a terminal Government.

When the NSW introduced four years terms, the argument was that this would give Governments more time to act outside the electoral cycle. No one envisaged what would happen if you had a Government with a clear majority going into terminal mode with a longish block of time still remaining before the next election. There is no way to fix the problem because of the majority gained at the last election.

I will report later when the new cabinet is picked. For the moment, let's just get three year parliamentary terms back.

Postscript

There is a remarkably interesting comment stream on Poll Bludger on this change. Poll Bludger picks up comments from across the political spectrum, if with a somewhat Labor/Green bias. No matter what the position, the comments are actually quite remarkable in that conversation is generally polite across divides.

The comment stream on this leadership change shows just how deep the reaction to NSW Labor goes, how it crosses various divides. 

2 comments:

Libertarian said...

Let's abolish fixed terms in NSW. The people are sick of a government which is not of their own choosing.

The entire NSW ALP is a joke, look at their handling of a special school in Bathurst which is as disfunctional as the NSW ALP itself.

Jim Belshaw said...

I would agree with you on fixed terms, Libertarian. Having followed through the link and read the whole series of posts from start, I won't comment on the school issue.