Privatisation (and Public Private Partnerships) was first made popular by Margaret Thatcher and then adopted by the WTO, who pressured developing nations into adopting it - specifically to transfer public wealth to the private sector. Most governments saw it as a way to raise some quick cash while others picked up some bargains. The public take all the risks and private interests reap the profits. It's also like stealing from the past and from the future at the same time.

As for O'Farrell solving all our problems and leading us into a bright new future we should first examine his policies.

1. Cut Payroll Tax.
2 ?

Any takers?

It's one thing to criticise but another to convince people that you actually have a solution to a problem - or is he hoping to "do a Bradbury" and wait for all the other skaters to fall over?

As accident-prone and tired as NSW Labour has become, I don't see that the Libs have anything to offer beyond short-term political opportunism and you can't live off that for 4 years.

Belly do not cry?
The Wollongong fiasco, nude dancing idiots, a leader better suited to go back to his former job, it is endless.
Once Carr left my party went on leave with him.
Let me say good or bad this election when it comes, will see the greens very much in control of the upper house.
And holding seats in the lower one.
Without action now not tomorrow, and not Frank Sartor, the ALP is killing its self in NSW.
Center unity once was the engine of the ALP nation wide, the self inflicted wounds will bring this state down.
Back room deals will not breath life into this dead beast, action may.
Let me explain that sentence back up the thread.
This last week has seen me daylight till dark sometimes well after, talking to workers with up to 40 years loyal service.
They know their jobs are to go, and they always end up in the hands of casual workers.
And that those jobs are not done well.
And that it costs more for less
Some have had less than ten days sick leave in 40 years
Some may even work for those contractors for less pay/worse conditions.
casual workers, forever casual.
Who are under paid and often poorly treated, now right now, NSW government departments , have casuals on their books who have worked constantly as casuals, for up to 6 and a half years.
In so many areas casualisation of the workforce is being supported by government and its contractors, even storage for contractors cars and trucks safe unpaid use of government facility's, is given to favored firms, often the worst employers.
Yes the opposition is bad, but if workers are to be flogged better it not be at the hands of the party they once thought was theirs.
If nothing else is gained by my party's lemming rush to defeat we at least can start to rebuild once its over.

I am no hero, my post puts me at risk, lets face it some know who I am.
Industrial relations is just a small part of my concerns bout my hopeless party's direction.
Make zero mistake, Rudd and my federal party are going very well, will be Center stage for years to Come, bless them.
I however Want a few of the many who from every side of my party in this state, who came from the union movement to think.
As you climbed that union ladder to your position did you leave the ideals behind?
Can you remember how It felt to see a group of workers lied to? betrayed,
How can anyone stand by and watch while government workers, lead by incompetent fools who are the real problem get replaced?
By labour hire firms who wine and dine those who control contracts, who treat workers as disposable humans, who sometimes are owned by ex unionists?
I ask for no workers Paradise, no bludgers retreat.
But I do want to turn the focus on very poor management, that saw my states rail contract system murdered by criminals, that sees crimes everyday by management.
That has let workers take the blame for such weakens uncontrolled stupidity in some government departments.
IT IS TRUE, THE NSW government workplaces are th only job I ever saw that promotes idiots, gives large redundancies to high placed people then brings them back on contract!
But bleeds the ordinary workers to death a few at a time over lunch giving contracts to turn jobs into slave like conditions.
MY Party we must refocus go to defeat doing the right thing not selling out workers converting jobs to slavery, rebuilding is am imposable task if you murder us.

Belly and Antonios,

I am sympathetic to your concerns. I live in the ACT and I have experienced something similar.

Back in the 1960s, the Federal Government enticed people to come to the ACT to work in the Federal Public Service by building and running hostels for them to live in. Over time, after getting the best out of the workers, the government tired of running the hostels and bit by bit got them off their books. This was done silently and without the knowledge of those that lived there, who were under the impression that they could stay there for life and were governed by a contract ensuring any replacement accommodation would have to be of the same standard. As the Government got the properties off its books, oversight of the contract slipped and lots of ordinary people who really didn’t have anywhere else to go started falling through the cracks.

The problems people faced were diverse, but ranged from making plans on the basis that they would live at the hostels until they died and then being financially worse off when they realised this wasn’t true, to being abruptly relocated to aged-care facilities and suffering mental health problems as a result of no longer having a community of people around. Some committed suicide it is believed.

One particular hostel was knocked down and renovated to become a 5-star hotel complex. During the process of getting the long-term residents – including 70 and 80 year olds who had never lived anywhere else since first coming to Canberra – out, help was sought from ALP politicians whose party HQ was literally a big stone’s throw away. After the residents got the usual polite brushoff from the bureaucracy and Government, the ALP has now relocated itself into the new 5-star hotel complex. So there you have it: the plebs get thrown out on the street to make way for the political powerbrokers to help themselves.

I did not start this thread to talk of the opposition, yes they are badly lead, I was wrong.
I thought they had found a leader, they have not, but do not need one.
This state is bound for trouble, no chance at all exists to return this mob to government.
Even with the coming last minute change in leadership, the knife is out and self mutilation well under way, contractors replacement of government jobs.
But we know that, all of us do, the greens however not my party, not my ideal, are about to get their greatest ever election results.
Be aware they will control the upper house, will take seats from both party's in the lower, and it may take 20 years but one day will run this state.
Right now workers are about to go to the opposition in massive numbers asking just one question, what is our future .
I invite my opponents, those welded to federal conservatives to open their minds as I have, your party's leadership and direction is as useless and unfocused as mine in this state.
Room exists to understand ,we all can see blind loyalty leads to blind stupidity in our camps.
If every member concerned about NSW and its lost , treacherous mob was expelled from the ALP we would have no members.
After our flogging in the poll to come may some feel as ashamed of themselves as I am of them now.

Believe it of not the rot in New South Wales is the fault of the Liberal Party. It privatized the Supreme Court way back in 1970, as far as civil jurisdiction is concerned and killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

The abolition of jury trial is New South Wales as of right and the installation of Judges in Courts, who write Rules to supersede all prior inconsistent acts of Parliament including the Australian Constitution, mean that the little people suffer and the rich get richer all the time. This was a Liberal Party idea. It abolished democracy because ordinary people in courts are democracy.

If Nathan Rees restores full jury trial as of right, repealed by the Liberal Party in 1970, and strips Judges of their monopoly, to give a few honest lawyers a fair go, then just watch New South Wales recover swiftly with virtually unlimited funds. One Judge three years ago robbed New South Wales of over a billion dollars by judging, instead of sending a matter to a jury. Judges are expensive, and no matter how much they get are still able to be bribed.

New South Wales became corruption central over the past forty years. Rees can fix it, but his lawyer mates may not let him