THERE are a good deal of similarities between the way NSW Premier Nathan Rees lost his job yesterday and the way Malcolm Turnbull lost his on Tuesday.
Both men went down fighting, using the media to attack their colleagues, making it difficult for their successors to take over.
Turnbull on the weekend poured bile over his Senate leader, Nick Minchin, as well as the resigning Liberals who didn't want him to negotiate passage of the emissions trading scheme.
It upset colleagues and, although Turnbull ultimately did better than expected in the leadership ballot, it guaranteed his fate.
Yesterday Rees launched an extraordinary attack on his colleagues, and declared that whoever beat him for the top job would be nothing but a puppet of Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid. Rees was probably a dead duck anyway, but his spray did nothing to preserve his position.
In both cases, Turnbull's and Rees's dilemma was that they were leaders more closely identified with the minority faction in the caucus.
Turnbull was supported by the moderate wing of the Liberal Party; Rees is a card-carrying member of the NSW Labor Left.
Liberal conservatives dominate the federal party just as the NSW Right runs state Labor.
Aside from the similarities between what happened last night in NSW politics and federally this past week, the implications of the state shake-up of the Labor Party will be playing on Kevin Rudd's mind.
The Prime Minister can't avoid going to the polls while NSW Labor still holds on to its tenuous grip on power.
The next state election comes at the end of a fixed, four-year term in March 2011.
Miners change tune on climate change
Peak mining industry body The Minerals Council of Australia has joined the fight on climate.
Easy to point the finger
Demanding we abandon coal for climate is akin to asking NZ to give up love affair with sheep.