Gary
I thought that the politics of resentment was the strategy of the angry right?

Gary,
the factional system played a key role in shaping the cabinet.Nathan Reess says:

You can imagine the machinations and the exchanges that have gone on," he said. "I have kept well and truly out of it from the outset.
My instructions (to NSW general secretary Karl Bitar) were: 'You manage this process; you keep bringing me back the list and I'll keep sending it back to you until I've got a list I'm comfortable with'."

Little has changed there --still a lot of the deadwood in Cabinet---eg., Community Services Minister Kevin Greene and Gaming Minister Graham West.

Though it does seems that the strict control from the party's Sussex Street headquarters is lessening.

Peter,
dead wood or not, Rees will need to have a mini budget soon (November?) to offset the looming $1 billion hole in the state's finances due to falling revenue from the property sector. Economic growth in NSW continues to contract. Interest rates have hit the NSW economy hard.

So the economic centre of gravity has shifted away from NSW.
They are Australians too.
A century of input has made the future possible for other states and places like WA, gifted by fortune and benefitting for minerals tha thave been in the ground for millins of years and these should not bicker if a few bob in grants goes NSW's way, to redress imbalances in services for Australians.
On the other hand, there is the problem of wastage through privatisations etc ove the last decade or two, with the unaccountability of the government through the stranglehold of an opportunist faction on government and policy there.
They have attempted a clean out, although I remain sceptical of its ultimate success, given some of the names remaining in positions of power there.
Methinks like the other half of the problem; Howard, they will put out next time round, since voters are no longer forced to balance one with the other.
But the People should not be made to suffer for the antics of politicians, penpushers, economists and capitalists and their quack nostrums.
And nor should current misfortunes be used as an excuse to do this.

Anon,
Nathan Rees has said he will not raise taxes. So it is slash and burn----public services----and privatising public transport and other government services. Oh and more handouts from the Commonwealth. But that goes without saying, doesn't it.

Paul,
if NSW wants money form the Commonwealth then it must agree to performance targets. That is what Rudd has said. You appear to be advocating subsidies from the Commonwealth without any sort of reform by NSW.

Puhlease...no more competition policy neoliberalist nonsense, Gary!
Please re-read my post.
The basis for aid to NSW may (although not necessarily) be legitimate on the basis of what has been contributed previously. IF this is the case all the other ideological stuff remains subsidiary to the MORAL imperative.
But the hard-hearted response to people done down and in effect punished for the sins of a few politicians and developers, parallels the notion that you kick your poor old mum out when you've grown up straight into the gutter; not even the consolation of a nursing home.
You have been very careful, Gary, to NOT specify exactly what you mean by "performance targets".
Are "performance targets" like " efficiency dividends" paid out when an an entity produces a record level of efficiency, measured in completion of mission and/ or financial increase and is promptly rewarded by budget cuts, so that the job can no longer be done because of resultant staff and ordinance cuts?
Usually for the benefit of asset-strippers or populist tax cuts if involving a government and its entity.
I plead again; no more Dickensianism, Gary.
No more Bounderby "Hard Times" Malthusianism.

Paul,
They are not my performance targets. They are those of the new federalism agreed to at CoAG by the states. If the states want money from the Commonwealth for health and education then they must agree to performance targets to measure them lifting their game. Otherwise no money.

What NSW should have done is borrow to invest in infrastructure instead of adhering to the neo-liberal mantra of zero government debt of Carr and Eagen. There is a tradition of state governments borrowing to build roads, bridges and railways – the 19th century arteries of a future economy--with the interest payments paid for by future generations. NSW have failed to invest in the future through debt and opted for (often dodgy) private sector investment with private funding, high tolls, and the state diverting traffic to the tollways.

The Labor Government under Carr and Iemma created the mess in NSW.

Paul,
The events of the recent days in Sydney indicate that Sussex Street head office has taken back effective control of the political agenda at Macquarie Street. Sussex Street has no intention of letting go of its hold on political power in NSW. Sussex Street is not known for its reform advocacy or its policy nous. Their ethos is whatever it takes to grab and hold onto power.

I sense a meeting of minds...
Nan, as I said elsewhere, they only do interventions with Labor is when there is a left wing apparatus in control.
Note Rees has forsaken tax increases for spending cuts and no sign of borrowing for infrastructure.
How sad. They will end up creating such resentment that they will lose NSW to the Tories, both at state and federal levels.
I wonder what the more constructive elements of fed labor make of it?

More sleeze in the NSW Rees' Government. It's the same old tune.

Not really Gary. The people were letting their hair down during happy hour.
Like the othe thing about the WA leader caught being a goose at an office party, this antic deserves a few lines and then we get on with on life.
But not constant harping for the next five eons, as if the subject were Mengele or the Boston strangler.
What real stories are left out of newspapers, for these sorts of saucy silly season stories.
Surely none is further suggesting anything really wrong happened?
Oh no...!

Paul,
it looks as the leak about Brown's conduct on Budget came from within the ALP. Yet another sign that they are dysfunctional.

You are dead right Gary, heard that on the radio.
It's so weird, so far fetched it couldn't be true.
Like self mutiliation, it is something us "norms" have trouble coping with.
The history of the WA ALP since Burke's fall, let alone all the various antics over time in Tory ranks, indicate unfortunately it's likely true.
Talk about "Pagliacchi"!