• Tony Smith

19 November 2009Having asked two ministers for their resignations, Premier Nathan Rees will have to hope that he has not thrown away Labor's last chance to retain government, writes Tony Smith in Eureka Street

WHEN NEW SOUTH WALES ministers Joe Tripodi and Ian Macdonald tendered their resignations to Premier Nathan Rees they were obeying conventions established over decades in Westminster type parliaments. In reality, the Premier had asked the two for their resignations last weekend, effectively sacking them. Whatever the reasons that they were given and have since supplied publicly, the immediate political reading of the action was that Rees was moving against disloyal members of cabinet.

In a state which has had an MP assassinated, a minister suspected of murders here and convicted of a similar crime overseas, a factional leader bashed savagely outside his Sydney home, and whose parliament has a reputation as a ‘bear pit’, it is inevitable that commentators will describe political blood being spilled. Unfortunately, where NSW Labor is concerned, such events often invite reprisals...

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