If you want to justify making big cuts on essential services like education, health, etc., just hide lots of money from the budget and tell everyone the budget is in the red and that you have to go without.

What a con! I wonder if Barrel is expecting to win the next election. I suppose he is hoping that by the time the election comes around that NSW voters will have forgotten that he tried to steal from them.

Mr O'Farrell is a politician.

Any politician's key objective is not to actually perform, but instead to concentrate on maximizing the benefits they receive from occupying public office. Pay, perks, superannuation all need to be preserved for as long as possible. Re-election usually fits in there somewhere, but I suspect that may not be front-of-mind with this lot.

And when it does look like the gravy-train might be reaching the terminus, the astute politician will prepare a path for themselves into private enterprise, using whatever means available to them at the time. Bob Carr was probably the most blatant example of this in recent times, but there have been many, many others.

Actually doing something for the State is going to be hard work, and politicians don't like that. The NSW government has for a while been in a no-win situation on practically every topic, from urban transport to water supply to the second airport to high-speed rail.

Which in its present incarnation, goes a long way towards explaining the otherwise inexplicable passage of Packer's casino proposal. I have no idea where Mr O'Farrell might fit into the Packer empire, but I suspect a cushy "retirement package" might await him.

He'd make an impressive casino doorman. That uniform...

"Re-election usually fits in there somewhere" That is the most important factor for new members because I think they have to serve at least 2 or 3 terms to get the indexed pension for life.
There real benefit comes after they leave and receive payback from the big companies they helped - directors seats on companies - massive consultancy pay etc.
The only thing lower than a politician now is a ambulance chasing lawyer.

Pericles, there is one other path you neglected, that of failed, very bad, state premier.

When the electorate has finally woken up to you, you can parachute into the federal cabinet, achieve instant promotion, & become a very bad foreign minister.

All you have to do is to continue to support a disastrous PM, & it can happen. We have living proof.

Having watched said foreign minister for a while, I'll bet Julia is not too sure it was such a good idea, & has bought a knife proof vest, with extra armor in the back.

Bailleau in Victoria stole from Victoria's future fund (set up and resourced by Brumby) to show a surplus on paper whilst doing sweetheart deals with crooked cops prior to the election, whom now act like some sort of private police force. O'Farrell's fraudulence is no surprise and no different to the hillbilly Campbell Newman comparing the Qld economy to Greece. All are driven by the very same wrong ideology that Howard used to destroy the Australian way of life.

If these keeps up all the working people will be living of tips and charity like Yanks. And these new breed of Tea Party LNP leadership like nuffies they are, are also actually much more dangerous than that, because they lie with purpose, planning and forethought and deliberately mislead in support of an ideology that is actually a myth, because there is no competion between corporations only the cartel.

They (the corporates) can do no wrong, they control monopoly essential services institutions that they bought for a song and can charge what they like, free from regulatory constraint and now they control the media as well, thanks to Howard removing cross media ownership laws. When they overcharge you it is your fault because you trusted them and signed their contract.

Such is the Australian way of life. O'Farrell's worst crime so far is using deception to stand in the the way of the peoples NBN. They are already planning to sell it to their buddies if they cant stop it from getting up and effecting their Telstra mates monopoly business.

I'm moving to New Zealand if Abbott becomes PM because the Dark ages Howard brought took us back 20 yrs. The ideologues have already pencilled in about 50 years of anal regression to an Australian way of life before education and exposure to the rest of the world. It's already an International embarrasment when people talk of turning the boats of asylum seekers back out to sea.

What a pack of barbarian hayseeds we must appear to the rest of the world.

When a mistake of one billion $ is made there is something fishy going on. i say it was a deliberate mistake to show how bad things are.
Abbott is pulling the same stunt by saying his surplus depends on the state of the books.
A deliberate ploy as Newman, and O Farrell.