Barry O'Farrell lacks passion and does not reflect the anger and frustration that the electorate of NSW feel.He has not clearly enuniciated how he will fix NSW.To most of us ,Barry seems to be a Morris Iemma clone,ie, just enjoying the ride.

Unless the NSW Libs get their act together,they will again lose the proverbial Bill Hayden's drovers dog,lay down misere.

There is no doubt that we in NSW have a dearth of talent from both sides of Parliament,but that should not preclude at least some semblance of determination and passion.

Mike Baird is young and has a very impressive track record in the banking industry.He is a high achiever,passionate,articulate and surely his financial skills will benefit us all.

While in the short term NSW's demise might benefit QLD and the other States in terms of economic refugees,the extrapolation of this scenario will be a negative for the whole of Australia.

Labor will dump Iemma soon and all they have to do is find a half articulate person with passion to win.

Mike Baird will have to make his move soon to establish his identity in the public consciousness,well before the 2011 election.

As I wrote at http://candobetter.org/node/754, as someone who does not normally praise Liberal Party politicans:

"... the NSW public and NSW unionists owe Michael Gallacher, Peter Debnam, Barry O'Farrell, Andrew Stoner and the whole NSW state opposition an enormous debt of gratitude. This is because the state opposition informed the NSW public of the truth about privatisation and the Labor Government record. The opposition then put its words into action (by blocking Costa's privatisation legislation) ..."

I commend the excellent speech by Opposition Upper House Opposition leader Michael Gallacher at http://candobetter.org/node/754

The treatment of Barry O'Farrell and the NSW state Opposition for their principled stand against privatisation which was supported by at least 79% of the NSW public is disgraceful.

That Mike Baird, now the darling of the shamelessly anti-democratic corporate newsmedia, would be critical of O'Farrell for standing up to Iemma's and Costa's outrages against democracy indicates to me that he does not deserve the support of the NSW public.

Daggett,Barry did not want the job of opposition leader.He only took the job under duress,due to lack of talent in the NSW Libs.

Barry to me is not an inspirational leader.Forget the politics,we want a leader with Jeff Kennett's balls,who has the guts to take on the Public service.

Barry no doubt is a good person,but we want people with intensity and insight who can see the cancer and remove it.

Well today the national accounts revealed that in the June quarter NSW had a negative growth of 1.1%.Even Tassy had a growth rate of 3%.

We cannot wait another 2.5 yrs for the next election.The pressure needs to be taken off the private sector and get it productive so the State can again get revenue from a growing economy.

Yes we are in a bind,the Iemma Govt will use some of these proceeds to promote their image,but do we let NSW languish in deep recession for longer than is necessary?

Sell the power now and if the NSW Libs present a united passionate front,surely they cannot again let the drovers dog get away with the next one!

Arjay,

I don't see how your last two posts address the concerns I raised.

I don't actually care that much that O'Farrell is an unwilling leader. I would rather have such a leader, if he is prepared to abide by principles of democracy, openness and accountability than someone of Jeff Kennett's ilk. Surely you cannot be unaware that a good many of us don't share your high regard for Jeff Kennett? An example is the following post in response to one of your posts:

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2103#44193

Don't you think that these often-repeated arguments in favour of a 'strong leader', who is prepared to disregard popular will, seems suspiciously like the arguments in favour of fascist leaders like Mosely, Mussolini, Franco and Hitler in the inter-war period?

There may be problems with the NSW economy, but that doesn't automatically mean that we must rush in a mad panic, as Costa, Baird, or Kennett would have us do, and adopt the most extreme free market solutions. What Costa is attempting to do is exactly what Naomi Klein has written of in "The Shock Doctrine", which I have written of at http://candobetter.org/node/770 http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2103&page=0#44466 http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2052&page=0#42987

Also, you should know that I don't share your world view that public servants are the principle cause of NSW's problems.

Daggett,you are about maintaining the present status quo.Coster said that we have 30,000 too many bureaucrats.This is costing us well over $3 billion pa.Over the life of this Govt this is over $50 billion wasted.This state is stone motherless broke and you want to sit on your hands?I find your statements incredulous.Rome burns while Daggett dithers!

It costs us over $ 21 billion pa for the PS.This is alost $7,000.00 pa for every working person in tax.This is not sustainable.The PS aristocracy need to be brought to heal.

If Barry O'Farrell reflects these views,then he should not be leader!Coster will go today.He was the only person willing to face the reality of reforms recommended by the Vertigan Report.

It seems under Barry O'Farrell,we will be no better off than now.In fact it could be worse!

As I wrote, Arjay, I don't share your ideological prejudice against public servants.

It will cost money to provide services however they are provided, and people who provide those services are entitled to decent working conditions and a career path, and should not be forced, for example, to work in battery-hen style privatised call centres (that is until the jobs are off-shored to India).

If you want to worship Costa as an inspired visionary reformer, that is your right, but it seems to me that most of your fellow residents of NSW don't share your high regard for him.

The Labor Party should hire me as their advisor.They have implemented my very scenario.

Daggett,NSW ALP have put in the PS all their own clueless cronies over the last 13 yrs.Nathan Rees may be a a new broom but I don't think he will have the power to do too much.It will be a case of "Yes Minister" and the PS will probably scuttle any plans Rees has of reform.

The NSW Libs now will need to smarten up their acts since Rees is far more articulate and assertive than Iemma.

When Rees starts sacking some of our useless PS advisors,then I'll believe he has real reform in mind.

after you get through explaining that parliamentary government doesn't work, why don't you think, and say, "maybe democracy is the answer."

the chains in your mind are stronger by far than the blacksmith's best efforts. ignorance is your weakness, not the pollies. they are there to make a living, not to run the state for your benefit. they are making a living, even while the state goes down the gurgler, because you replace one with another, and none are competent, nor can be competent.

the skill set of a politician and a manager and planner is completely different. the required character is different too: a manager should be honest, and can get and hold his position by being competent as well as honest. a politician can not be honest, any more than a mugger can be kind-hearted. they can't be competent, either. they have no education or experience in planning or management. the public service does that. they are in parliament to make money while inflating their egos. it should not surprise that the result is the mess we see.

your frustrations come from ignorance, perhaps, but more likely from being unwilling to look at political reality and say "jeez, we gotta get off our bums and change things".