Colless on NSW

It has been great recently to read the writings of Malcolm Colless in NSW politics.

He had a point well made in criticising the current leadership of Barry O'Farrell.

Peter Debnam lost the last election because his only campaign theme was to cut public servants. I am increasingly frustrated by seeing the Opposition spokespeople on transport and health simply pop up on TV and say "shame" but I have yet to hear anything convincing about why the coalition would be different, let alone better. After all this is still the Liberal party which believes in small government which means less services.

More recently Malcolm Colless has attacked the "jobs for the boys" culture in NSW Labor. The article only dwells on the intention to recreate Agents-General positions, but the rot is great. Its apothesis is the appointment of John Robertson as an MLC, a ludicrous decision, but it runs deep in the public service. The most recent is the appointment of thenew Director-General of the Premiers Department.

The other nice thing about reading Malcolm is that somewhat unique feature of the media where journalists like Malcolm (formerly Canberra press gallery) move to management (Northern Daily Leader, HWT, Strategy and Government Relations) and then resurface as columnists. If only more occupations wer so flexible.