Why we are backing NSW Premier Mike Baird

Date March 21, 2015 - 9:06PM
EDITORIAL

The voters of NSW face a difficult choice on March 28: between risk and safety.

They can choose to support an untried Labor leader who, while exceeding even his own expectations of performance and doing well to explain his modest policy offerings, nonetheless leads a party that has not used the past four years wisely. Nor has it reformed enough. Labor is still tied to unions and factional mates who place their interests ahead of the state's and the voters'.

But what about the risk of Premier Mike Baird's privatisation plan for the state's electricity poles and wires?

To his credit, Mr Baird has taken his highly unpopular policy to the people. In the face of a dishonest scare campaign by Labor and unions alleging power prices will rise under the deal, the Premier has made a strong case for leasing the 49 per cent of assets to unlock billions in funds for major projects. Still, he has questions to answer about his office's role in the handling of a report by investment bank UBS that concluded the the privatisation would be bad for the budget.

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Voters are also concerned about coal seam gas exploration and that the nation's biggest infrastructure project, the $14.4 billion WestConnex motorway plan, is not as good as it seems on paper.

Opinion polling in key seats for The Sun-Herald by ReachTEL shows that voters are torn on all these issues. The results in the new inner Sydney seat of Newtown, Strathfield - where Labor corruption whistle-blower Jodi Mackay is running - and Ballina on the north coast suggest the allocation of preferences will be crucial to the outcome of these seats, and voters are not listening to the government's message on privatisation.

Such is voter unease that the election for the upper house looms as crucial for either party to prosecute its agenda. The Sun-Herald implores voters to think wisely before following party diktat on preferences or supporting micro parties without knowing their background or platform. Then again, voters should recognise that for the past four years, with Labor in disarray following its landslide defeat in 2011, the most effective and extensive opposition has come from the upper house.

Labor's failure to rebuild until recently means that while the party is relying on some good health and education policy ideas, others are undeveloped. In addition, the NSW Labor leader did not have to face the voters before entering the upper house and now faces them for the first time as he tries to switch to the safe Labor electorate of Auburn in the lower house. He has never been a minister, either.

Voters should consider carefully whether it is worth the risk of going back to Labor when the alternative is to choose the safety of a Coalition government which, for all the clouds of corruption and reluctance to reform political donations laws thoroughly, has performed well on the economy.

Mr Baird ran the Treasury portfolio confidently, has had almost a year as Premier and remains very popular. And his popularity is likely to offset any policy reservations including about privatisation.

He retains a keen interest in social justice, notwithstanding the views of some in his party. In February the Fairfax-Ipsos poll put his approval rating at 60 per cent, even with the privatisation support running at 23 per cent and rising to just 47 per cent if the proceeds were used for infrastructure.

The Premier has more political capital upon which he can draw. Barring the emergence of misbehaviour linked to the UBS privatisation report, voters are entitled to trust Mr Baird to deliver on his platform with safety and surety. He also offers the best chance of giving NSW a strong voice in limiting the power of an increasingly dysfunctional and erratic federal government.

In 2015 Mr Foley remains a risk. In 2019, however, with more policy work and internal Labor Party reform, his time may come.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/why-we-are-backing-nsw-premier-mike-baird-20150321-1m4c2j.html

ALP should win, but Coalition will. And then proceed to completely fuck up the state by selling everything not nailed down to their own corrupt interests.

Under the Coalition the Hills has finally seen the beginning of the NorthWest rail link that we've been promised by every government since the 80s. They've got my vote.

So you arent really weighing up anything youre single issue voting?

Lol

He may have weighed everything up and decided that the rail link was the mitigating factor for his vote.

I was very close to supporting my local ALP member before he supported the data retention bill.

There will be a pretty sizeable swing back to Labor as a lot of their "rusted-on" voters will return after feeling the need to cleanse the party after the last election, however the Coalition will probably win comfortably.

Will donkey vote this one. First election I couldn't give 2 shits who wins.

This.

I love how you think that anyone would be impressed that you couldn't give a stuff. There is plenty at stake in this election.

I reckon i'll vote liberal, mostly because I like the work Gladys Berejiklian has done as transport minister. Finally looks like Sydney will get a second rail harbour crossing and some form of rapid transit, as well as the light rail extensions.

Nah man. Its the same old false promises by politicians whose job it is to merely get elected.

Love the iVote system, really quick and easy. Registered and voted in like 20 minutes 3 days a go.

What a lot of garbage. You mean leasing of the power poles, an idea first floated by the previous Labor government, only shelved by them due to the influence of the unions, and cost Morris Iemma his job? The current Coalition has been in power for 4 years, have they completely fucked up the state in that time? You be hard pressed to fuck things up as much Labor did in the 16 years before that.
If it wasn't for Labor's mismanagement, maybe we wouldn't have to lease the power poles to get the money necessary to fix the infrastructure Labor let ruin.

They've done nothing except build a 2 lane motorway in the form of the M5 which is an absolute debacle.

I don't have a huge amount of interest in politics in general, and rarely dig deep enough to make an informed decision with my vote.

But my local ABC radio station interviewed (around 8 mins each) each person running in my area for this State Election just to get an idea of the person they are and some of the issues they believe in, and I think I've made my decision based solely on those 8 minute interviews.

My local current member is an independent, who was formerly the mayor of the area, and he's just so real about issues. He just seems so down to earth, doesn't grovel as much as others for votes, and is happy for people to make their own minds up on issues - he doesn't even offer preferences for voting, just says people can make their own minds up. I'll be voting for him, unless I can think of a hilariously awesome way to informal vote (which I do most of the time anyway) :lol: will probably just vote for South Park

[youtube]9LWEYlKO2EI[/youtube]

All my local runners are against privatisation of the power lines, so it's not like whether I had a view for or against it would I be able to vote solely on that issue. Wait, just realised the radio didn't interview the Liberal or No Land Tax runners in my area. I have no idea who they are or what they stand for, then :lol: and have slim to no interest to find out.

Edited by pv4: 23/3/2015 11:40:23 AM

To be fair, I know a lot of people who vote solely on how the member looks. So many people I know (particularly women) voted against Liberal in the federal election solely because of that Tony Abbott/Gollum picture, and will happily admit it. At least EG and others are looking at issues :lol:

this.....+1,000,000

and the absolute lies the unions and labor or propagating on TV is just really sad.......not unusual or unexpected.....

considering the 100's of millions of $ the previous corrupt ALP state government got away with the only real answer is Baird..... NSW under this state government has moved up to 2nd in the economic ratings and will soon be 1st.....yep that the LNP fucking up the state........](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

your obviously nil or il informed

rofl

They fucked up the M5 project in the sense that whilst it's all good and well adding extra lanes AFTER the M5 East tunnel, the M5 East is only two lanes, and now they're going to basically have to re-build the tunnel in order to accommodate more lanes.

I'm still not entirely convinced on the whole WestConnex system either. Will have to look deeper into it.

They have done well in terms of Public Transport IMO. They did get the South-West rail link up and running well before it was expected, now they just need to connect it to the Airport-East Hills line, for peak hour services at the minimum. Connecting it to the South Line/Cumberland line outside of peak hour would be ideal. I think they're still trialing the line because at the moment it only stops at Glenfield & Liverpool.

If they are voted in, I'm expecting them to overhaul Sydney Buses. I don't think they'll privatize them, but I have heard rumours of them closing a couple of depots (North Sydney & Willoughby - and maybe Burwood) and building a Super Depot out near Parramatta somewhere.

90% of the M5 was planned and fucked previously.....

Not sure how adding lanes can be considered a fuck up. Yes the tunnel is an abomination, but a LOT harder to fix. Labor were told it was inadequate when they built it. Urban myth has it that it would only have cost 10mill at the time for 3 lanes either way, but Carr and his cronies fucked that up royally and said no. This was the same mob who decided the M2 was only worth 2 lanes either way, and it had to be widened with 10 years of being opened.
Either way, not sure how it's the current Govt fault that they have to pick and choose which of the previous govt's fuck up they need to fix at any given time, considering how many there are.

Ummm like buying back CSG licenses??

Baird should get back, unfortunately. Many people are angry about privatisation, which should see Labor's vote go back up. I'll be voting Labor for that reason.

However, the libs will win because:

- people like Baird, especially in Sydney. This contrasts to Newman, who was hated in QLD
- people seem to like what's happening in transport with light rail and the NW Rail link
- Foley has been good but he's only been in the job 3 months
- people haven't forgotten the corruption of the last Labor government yet.

People forget how much corruption has poisoned the political atmosphere in NSW. Almost every night for the last 4 years we've had Obeid or some other Labor minister on the news walking out of ICAC. Even though the liberals have been through a similar thing, people don't want Labor back (or at least don't see them as the solution to the corruption problem).

In Victoria and QLD you didn't have huge corruption scandals in the Brumby or Bligh governments, so people were willing to vote for Labor again quickly. That's the big difference in NSW.

My seat (Heffron) has always been held by Labor (literally) and by some margin and I don't see that changing.

what strikes me as amazing is that the ALP had the exact same policy and now they are diametrically opposed and telling pork pies, even their party are outing the lies....Costa,fergusen,Iemma,keating,latham are all in favour and admitted it a great idea.......i am in the electricty industry and they will be tendering and leasing 49% so the ownership does not change hands.....but hey if Labor say it being sold we all should take note because labor never lie.....

All politicians lie.

-PB

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

I'll be very surprised Baird is outed (we cannot be as silly as the other 2 basket case's) - barring the ignorance of OFarrell F up with the Grange offering every side of the fence has bad apples BUT the State is in ten times better shape than the previous years of labour mess.
Yep they'll get their count back up, its a given, we need 2 good opponents and in time I expect Foley will improve but more so he needs to make up a sound better team behind him for to date labour is not a team to back for now - Div4 standard is being kind.
Baird can't please them all but he's pretty sound and does his best being on the pulse.
Poles/wires, nothing stays the same, govco cannot keep every service under its control as in the ol days. (I wish) but but labour had the same agenda as mentioned - seriously joe public are jack ass's :lol:
Add in Gen x y z over the years want change everywhere else but not this for eg ? they'll just tax you/us more another way to gain revenue for x future projects - god forbid hopefully move bottle necks elsewhere to satisfy those currently having the burden as development expands in mature suburbs till it builds in newer burbs :lol: jack ass's.

Ya tty tty. ....NSW SAFE FOR ANOTHER 4 YEARS......YIPPPPPPPEEEEEEE