Premier’s popularity has gone completely to the dogs

MIKE Baird, hipsters, the Olympics, new Senators, the DPP, the NRL. Just some of the people and issues that have Ray Hadley talking this week.

1 WE had confirmation this week that Premier Mike Baird has lost the plot completely. Apparently the decision to ban greyhound racing was not done to get re-elected. Thanks scoop! It must have been done to make him feel better. I note political scientist Elaine Thompson regards Baird’s “unyielding decision” as a part of a US-style “religious aspect” creeping into Australian politics. Faith is an important part of many people’s lives but at the moment the battlers in the greyhound industry have lost all hope and have no faith in the Baird-Grant government. I think Baird will get his wish about not being re-elected.

2 While the Premier might disappear back into investment banking some of his boofheaded colleagues will struggle to find employment once out of politics. They’re the ones who should be worried about what’s coming their way in 2019.

3 The readers of this newspaper and the listeners to my radio program should take note: The Premier’s Department no longer thinks you count. You see, you’re reading or listening to “legacy media”. The hipsters and Sir Humphreys guiding the Premier think social media is the way to go. Of course he announced the banning of greyhounds and his recent tumble in his socks on social media. Yo Bro, let’s see if social media gets you home in 2019.

4 Among a host of boneheaded decisions by the Baird government in recent times is the awarding of the $2.3 billion carriage building contract to South Korea and ignoring the battlers in Wollongong and the Hunter Valley. The 30 per cent saving comrade Baird talks about is easy to account for. In South Korea the minimum wage is about $6 an hour. In Australia it’s almost three times that. Only a week earlier the NSW government breathlessly told us they’d create one million jobs in the next 20 years. I thought they meant here, not in South Korea.

5 In 1996 Great Britain won one gold medal in Atlanta. Twenty years later in Rio they won 27. Australia has been in gold medal decline since Sydney and Athens and there doesn’t appear to be much being done about it.

6 The new Senators are taking their place on the crossbenches in Canberra. Gee, that double dissolution decision by PM Malcolm Turnbull didn’t turn out the way he hoped.

7 The DPP has been directed to consider an appeal against the inadequate sentencing of Marcus Stanford for being an accessory after the murder of Stephanie Scott. That might be difficult given the DPP agreed with a defence suggestion this was at the lower end of the scale of offending.

8 Tomorrow there’ll be a high police presence in Lidcombe for the wedding reception of Salim Mehajer’s sister to make sure the community isn’t inconvenienced. At what cost? Surely we won’t have police standing by while these cowboys take over the streets again.

9 I don’t quite understand Parramatta rewarding Corey Norman with a $2.3 million three-year contract. He’s currently out of the game after being found guilty of drug charges. I thought the new management would take the Eels in a new direction. Apparently not.

10 Thanks to our loyal 2GB listeners in Sydney for taking the station and my program to its 98th consecutive survey win. My colleague Alan Jones celebrated 101 straight wins this week as well.