NSW Government collapses...

So... just a week or so after I visited the Government of New South Wales and being deeply underwhelmed (see previous blog), they yesterday collapsed. I hope it's not some contagion I've brought over from the UK; the next test for that will be the Western Australia election tonight where the ruling Labor Government are looking pretty shaky despite the state coffers overflowing with resource-boom revenues.

What happened in NSW?

• They became tired. The NSW Labor Party have been in power since 1995 and have inevitably run out of steam. There was a quite palpable sense a lack of direction I picked up there.


• Unsuccessfully transitioned leaders. The previous popular party leader who had originally won the Labor party power, Bob Carr, left in 2005 after a decade in power. Morris Iemma who took over the reins (uncontested by others) never managed to successfully lead and the polls continued to head down.


• Failed to lead. For example, there's been a long running fight over whether to privatise the state's power network. The Government failed to take the argument on and instead of argue it on their terms (e.g. on the principles and evidence) they got stuck in a ideological fight with the unions. They lost.


• Allowed party infighting. The immediate trigger for the Premier's departure (along with most of the other senior memebers of the NSW Cabinet) was a failed attempt at a reshuffle between different party factions. Government without unity is always doomed.


• Mismanaged the economy. Interesting side story was the ex-Treasurer revealing how bad the state's finances were in -- but it was pretty common knowledge that NSW had long been in the red.

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-- UPDATE --

Oh dear.

The Western Australian Labor party have now lost their parliamentary majority in what's been billed as 'Labor's Fright Night'. It's now a hung parliament in WA but looks like the Nationals could be king-makers for a Liberal-National coalition. If so, it'd be the first state to fall with NSW looking likely to follow next year.

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