Gladys has been badly let down by the National Party
A premier that has delivered historic economic growth should be lauded by voters, especially when compared to Labor’s bungles. She deserves better from her colleagues in the Nationals too, writes Miranda Devine.
How can we have reached a point where a government which balanced the books and catapulted the state to the top of every economic measure is struggling against a party with a neophyte leader, a hard-core left-feminist deputy, an identity politics agenda, a poverty-inducing energy policy and a shadow ministry no one has heard of?
Just eight years after the worst string of Labor bunglers the state has ever endured, polls indicate the electorate has the memory of a goldfish.
What are the gripes against Gladys Berejiklian? They’re trivial in the scheme of things.
OK, she was desperately snippy in an ABC election debate last Friday night when she tried to peg Daley as a liar. “He’s not been honest”, “All I’m saying is tell the truth,” “He can’t even tell the truth in a debate”, “You’re not telling the truth”. “Just tell the truth”, “That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s misleading.” “You’re not telling the truth again”.
We get the point, but the harping made her look less Premier and more classroom dobber, which is unfortunate for such a competent woman.
Yes, her energy minister Don Harwin should be in the Greens party.
Yes, the George Street light rail is a hopelessly unnecessary waste of money. It’s overdue and overbudget and it’s caused heartache for the poor shopkeepers along its route.
MORE FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: The light rail is a mess. It’s time to cut our losses
And, yes, Berejiklian wants to spend $2 billion on sports stadiums. But that’s a paltry 2.2 per cent of the state’s $90 billion infrastructure spend.
How an investment in sport has become a political liability in Australia is a triumph of Labor spin.
True, it was a genius move for Michael Daley to muscle up to Alan Jones on air, highlighting the fact that Berejiklian has allowed herself to look as if she is at the beck and call of the broadcaster and other vested interests around town.
Daley’s sardonic “Thank you for your service” as he promised to sack Jones from the SCG Trust has become a morale-boosting meme for Labor, referenced half a dozen times to rousing cheers at Sunday’s campaign launch at the Revesby Worker’s Club.
But it’s still just a stunt.
Labor needs a lot more to show it actually is “ready willing and able to govern”, as Daley claims.
MORE FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: Gladys, sorry to say the trust has been broken
His campaign playbook is ripped straight from comrade Daniel Andrews in Victoria, offering voters goodies such as free public transport and TAFE courses.
If you ask non-political people in Melbourne to explain how the Andrews government could so bafflingly have won re-election last year, they cite just such retail issues. Free stuff, in other words.
Labor’s trifling promises should be nothing against the Coalition’s record in resuscitating the state’s finances. As Berejiklian said during her ABC debate, they inherited the “worst performing state with the highest unemployment and worst jobs growth [and] we’ve turned it around.”
She’s right. The state’s unemployment rate now is a historic 3.9 per cent, the lowest in the country. Treasurer Dom Perrottet delivered a $4 billion surplus in his last budget, a stunning turnaround on the $2.4 billion deficit the Coalition inherited from Labor eight years ago. The state’s net worth hit a record quarter of a trillion dollars and our Triple A credit rating is rock solid.
MORE FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: The premier that wowed Washington
NSW has no net debt and the government has established a sovereign wealth fund to offset future debt with $3 billion seed money, while it builds the overdue infrastructure that Labor neglected during 16 laggardly years.
If the Coalitions loses on March 23, the message to governments everywhere will be that fiscal discipline and prudent budgeting don’t pay. Just promise free stuff to voters and let someone else worry about paying for it.
But the truth about the government’s perilous position 10 days out from the election is that Berejiklian has been let down badly by the National Party.
John Barilaro always acts like a guy trying to avoid being burned by what’s coming down the pike. His performance at Sunday’s Coalition campaign launch at the Penrith Panthers had colleagues cringing. His joke that his speech had been signed off by Alan Jones went down like a lead balloon.
With four of the government’s six most marginal seats held by the Nationals, the election will be won or lost in the bush, which is why Daley has lately taken to calling himself the “son of a Kempsey dairy farmer”, despite having spent his whole life in inner-suburban Maroubra.
Barilaro hasn’t managed to woo back Nationals voters turned off by council amalgamations, the greyhound ban and water mismanagement, and they are being hoovered up by an energised Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and Mark Latham’s One Nation.
And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, just to underscore the fecklessness of the Nationals, Barnaby Joyce has chosen this week to launch an ugly public leadership brawl.
Poor Gladys can’t cop a break.
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