ABC Radio reports Morris Iemma has told a meeting of his faction that he will resign. He will be succeeded by Nathan Rees, who entered parliament barely 18 months ago as member for Toongabbie.
Iemma out
Analysis and discussion of elections and opinion polls in Australia
ABC Radio reports Morris Iemma has told a meeting of his faction that he will resign. He will be succeeded by Nathan Rees, who entered parliament barely 18 months ago as member for Toongabbie.
here here gusface
GG,
I hope for the sake of the state you are wrong. It would just be an unmitigated disaster if Labor won in 2011. Normally I wouldnt attach too much significance to a change of government either way but in this case – they have reached Cain-Kirner levels of incompetence.
Bushfire Bill,
Sorry to hear about your 200k. I will do a similar amount due to the behaviour of Housing Department tenants. Tried to alert clowns like Kristina Keneally and the utterly hopeless Matt Brown to the rorting going on. Brown’s office has gone nearly a calendar year in not replying, despite the glossy promos telling us how they were going to crack down. Iemma has been personally advised but he didn’t feel the need to respond either. NSW Labor is rotten to the core and the alternative is indescribably pathetic. We are both going to be screwed over.
No 150
Dumb argument. The states profited handsomely from Stamp Duty and Land Tax receipts PLUS the GST bonanza. Where did it all go?
13 years of Labor mismanagement, dithering and incompetence is to blame, not Howard.
Time for a new argument mate, it’s getting pretty old.
It is unbelievable that people have not read the constitution to understand the responsibilities of state and federal governments.
GP,
The Liberals in NSW will be seen as serious when they clean out a series of deadwood MPs in safe seats. After all this is the party that still has Wayne Merton and Malcolm Kerr as MP’s
No 151
I can’t believe people are defending the stupidity of the NSW Government. That is what is more shocking than anything else.
They’ve had an innumerable amount of scandals, corruption revelations and other general mishaps, and people still find a way to support the bunch of cretinous dolts.
No 155
The problem is, after more than a decade in opposition, and four year fixed terms; it makes the situation for Oppositions incredibly difficult. I agree there needs to be renewal, but frankly, the first priority is to expunge Labor from Macquarie Street.
154
so the decline in real terms of the states share of the tax pie is a dumb argument.
economics 101 for you.
No 158
Read the constitution mate.
Barry (147)- you seem to know an awful lot.
Do you work in Lee Street?
Gusface, you really should read the constitution. There is nothing stopping NSW from introducing an income tax or a sales tax or a death duty or any amount of revenue raising ideas.
But this is NOT the problem. NSW was swimming in revenue during the property boom and the ALP govt pi$$ed it up against a wall somewhere.
Revenue is only one side of the ledger anyway. How about doing something about the bloated bureaucracy.
You never know GP, maybe Prime Minister Rudd will come to the rescue for the N-W line with the infrastructure fund and not only win the seat of Mitchell at the next election but the next state election for Rees.
Steve
the “pissing up the wall” was actually covering or replacing services/programs scrapped by howard
also the appalling lack of infrastructure planning and the howard backed privatisation of infrastructure support services was disgraceful
pps howard also loaded sysdney up with 400k business migrants without adequate planning etc
and the real & declined under howard
& should be percentage %
The debate about the NW Rail link misses one important point. The switch from heavy rail to Metro conveniently allows the Government to avoid putting RailCorp in charge of it. This outcome would have been very very difficult to achieve in practice if the heavy rail option was pursued. The entrenched culture at RailCorp makes it very difficult to achieve any tangible transport reform, without pulling the whole thing apart and starting again from scratch.
C’mon Steve A, where did NSW government pi$$ up revenue against a wall somewhere???
I’ll tell you where the states money went. In other states funding through unfair GST revenue allocation, and Tip’s surpluses.
re: Generic Person @ #149
[Barry, good overview, but you forgot the most important issue: the ability, or lack thereof, for the government to fund the $12 billion required for the project.]
Generic Person,
No, that is NOT the most important issue.
The MOST important issue is the risk of a Liberal government getting elected before 2017 and scrapping the project.
Remember what happened when Greiner was elected in 1988. The 60% completed Maldon to Port Kembla railway was cancelled. Coal trains from the Southern Highlands still travel through the Sydney suburban network to get to Port Kembla.
Do you know who was Chief of Staff to the Transport Minister at that time?
No 162
Again, gusface is here trumpeting NSW Labor. Despicable. It’s not Howard’s fault – stop trying to justify the incompetence of Labor. Be honest for once.
Lest I remind you of the Woolongong table of knowledge, Milton Orkopoulos, Cross City Tunnel, repeated cancellation of NW rail line, M5 carpark, M5 East pollution, transport failures, bathurst dr death, royal north shore. I could go on, but frankly, I need not.
You can’t blame Howard, you can’t blame the Liberals. The only people responsible are Morris Iemma and NSW Labor.
No 166
Sorry Barry, but you need money to build things. And furthermore, the NW rail link has been announced and reannounced so many times that it has greater risk of being cancelled by Labor, than the coalition.
You can’t spend what you don’t have. And unless you want the AAA credit rating to be lost and thus pay $500 million a year extra in interest, then I suggest you start studying economics 101.
Centre, how about this as a VERY SMALL example of where the money has been going:
“Iemma has employed a bunch of former Nine Network journalists headed by former news director John Choueifate to boost his sagging image. The well-paid team includes Adam Walters, Dale Paget and Brad Schmidtt. …… The new group adds to Iemma’s already impressive media team: director of communications Glenn Byers and press secretaries Alison Hill, Justin Kelly, Korena Flanagan, Sarah Conway and Sally Davidson.” (Aus)
“so high is Mr Chouefaite’s salary by Government standards that he is said to have had to negotiate it with the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Robyn Kruk.” (SMH)
That adds up to at least 9 highly paid spin doctors
167
just stating facts sunshine,just stating facts
No 165
Centre, again, another parrot for NSW Labor. They are incompetent and indefensible. The worst government in living memory.
No 170
There’s not a shred of fact in your statements.
No 169
Yep, 9 spin doctors all paid well over 200,000 each. Shame.
Imagine being a spin doctor for Iemma!
No wonder they all demanded so much money.
173
what you think they were worth more,sort your line of argument out.
No 175
1. Read the constitution.
2. Shame on spin doctors. Learn to read.
Generic Person,
I finished my economics studies last semester.
I suggest you go back and re-read my posting at #147. Hopefully you will notice that it is a discussion of various rail systems, not an economics lecture.
Please take particular notice of the last sentence.
The more I keep reading GP, the more I hope Rees makes a success of it.
Instead of having a federal government blowing surpluses on porkbarrelling, political advertising, opportunistic policies, boat people, wars, and tax cuts to the very highest income earners (all this while states struggle for funding), we now have a government that is prepared to invest in the nations infrastructure and public services.
Iemma had it difficult with Howard in Canberra. Rees will have it easier with Rudd.
176
1.what the constitution has wage rates for spin doctors?
2.also witch doctors should learn to read as well
Centre, that’s just crap, you must work in Gov Macquarie Tower.
Re 169, Steve A, I agree. Rees has got to forget about media image and stunts.
But you know as well as I do, that’s hardly blowing the states revenue.
Centre,
We now have a Federal Government that talks the talk, whether they walk the walk is yet to be determined.
But I think we can all agree that it is vital for Rees to be an improvement on Iemma.
By the way (this is a serious question, not a leading one), how big is the NSW Public Service compared to when Carr was elected in 1995?
Centre, your arguments are ridiculous. Before the election, Morris Iemma spent $2.6 million advertising the “State Plan” which was greater than the money spent in developing the State Paln itself.
Dyno its gone up 37%
183 – almost as bad as the 40 million dollars spent on advertising Workchoices.
And then there was the Lane Cove tunnel. You might remember that Iemma paid the owners (Connector) $25 milliion to delay the opening until after the election. I suppose this wasn’t pissing it up against a wall.
ESJ – I take it that’s numbers of people, not $.
What’s the State’s population gone up by, I wonder – 15%?
Steve A, you’re kidding.
The only thing that’s been greater than Howard’s advertising waste was his rear end licking of Dubya. Both records. The latter greater than the former.
ESJ Re 180. Post 178 is true, and you know it.
Centre,
Are you seriously trying to assert that Iemma was a great leader, unfairly felled by the intransigence of the demon Howard?
This is all just a wind-up, right?
How about this for a scenario for 2011.
The new premier sniffs the wind and realises that electricity privatisation is electoral poison and promises he will never, ever do it.
The Liberals meanwhile plough on regardless and promise privatisation if elected and for their trouble manage to lose the unloseable election.
How ironic that would be, when they could have had it all done and dusted already – courtesy of the ALP – and then blamed it all on Labor at the next election.
It’s unlikely, but if it did happen that way, it would make it very difficult for any party in NSW to ever promise electricity privatisation again.
Where have I implied such Dyno. Refer to my earlier posts.
Centre,
I, like you, found JWH’s advertising waste loathesome. But surely you cannot defend the NSW govt’s patently obvious wasting of taxpayer’s money.
On the one hand you blame JWH for not giving enough money to NSW and then you defend the ALP government when they waste the money they are given.
I just don’t get it. This government is the worst state government NSW has ever seen and Nathan Rees’ good intentions are not going to fix it.
Their last best chance was Costa (D*head that he was). He was only one not drinking the Cool-Aid.
Steve A, I am not defending state labor as my past posts show.
But the truth is that if we had a responsible federal government with a long term vision for the nation, instead of an opportunistic federal government whose only vision extended to the next election, then the states’ jobs would have been easier.
Therefore, Rees will have an easier run with Rudd than what Iemma had with Howard. Hence the extra funding already provided for health for e.g. which would never have been given under the Rodent.
Askin’s government was the worst NSW government.
Centre the fact that you have to refer to Howard as a rodent demonstrates your pathetic partisan rancour. Once again, you can’t help but deflect blame away from Iemma.
It’s not the job of federal governments to run states. Read the constitution.
Let’s just have a look at these two statements –
“This government is the worst state government NSW has ever seen”
Possibly but how do you know this? you have checked all governments before this one? You have used a measurement? What is it?
“Nathan Rees’ good intentions are not going to fix it.”
Don’t tell, don’t tell me, you’ve looked into the crystal ball, right?
Before my time Muskiemp (could have been in nappies)?
What’s also rather ironic in your argument, Centre, is that you support Rudd – who proffered to end the so-called “blame game” – yet here you are blaming anyone and everyone except Morris Iemma and Bob Carr for the parlous state of affairs that is NSW.