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December 4, 2009
Before he was dumped in favour of Kristina Keneally Nathan Rees, the then Premier of NSW, gave a speech that spoke truth to power:
A malign and disloyal group well known to the NSW community has made the business of government almost impossibleThe presence of such a group within the nation's oldest and proudest political Party is intolerable. Their treachery and disloyalty can be borne no longer....Should I not be Premier by the end of this day, let there be no doubt in the community's mind, no doubt, that any challenger will be a puppet of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi.That is the reality.
The old regime of the Right faction of Obeid and Tripodi beholden to the property developers once again dictates the fortunes of Labor party, and they have regained the levers of control.
The incompetent NSW Labor government is going down big down in the next 14 months yet the Labor factions are engaged in factional power plays over the deckchairs on the Titanic for the spoils of office. The party heavyweights talk about establishing respect, trust and accountability with the community, and the e ALP's "achievements" in health, education and transport.
These are weasel words that have little meaning in the NSW context ----Trevor Cook describes this as looking like another turn in the death spiral rather than a minutes to midnight comeback.
Rees had moved to the only possible strategy to save the Labor base by effectively campaigning against his own party, which had been embroiled in a variety of property rorts and scandal. The party turned against Rees for sacking Tripodi and then cutting the party's ties with property developers finance him in an embittered, destructive, almost suicidal moment of revenge.
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The factional warlords of the Right faction have spoken. Do as we say. We run the government. Attempts to cut down the power of these warlords--by banning developers political donations to the party---fail.
The NSW government is about personalities and the spoils of office not policies and solutions to problems. It would have to be the worst state government in Australia