Australian Labor brings down leaders who defied conference

Submitted by Anon on 12 September, 2008 - 10:51 Author: Janet Burstall

Treasurer Michael Costa and Premier Morris Iemma resigned from the New South Wales Labor government on Friday 5 September. Fundamentally, it was a victory for the huge vote at the New South Wales Labor State Conference in May against their plans to privatise electricity.

Iemma and Costa tried to push ahead with the plans, defying the conference vote, but eventually they were brought down. No NSW Labor Government will defy State Conference in a hurry again.

For the first time in living memory New South Wales has a Labor Premier and Deputy Premier both from the “left” faction, although Nathan Rees formally declared himself “unaligned” in order to take up his new position as Premier.

On Friday and over the weekend it seemed to be a good moment for supporters of public ownership, union rights and public services to press on and intensify all campaigns for improvements from NSW Labor.

But will they? How will Unions NSW, under the leadership of John Robertson, react? Unions NSW can claim a lot of credit for the defeat of privatisation of electricity generation, and of the Howard Government at the last federal election. How will they react to Rees’s declaration of intent to cut the public sector and cap pay rises below the rate of inflation?

For, by Monday 8th, the new Premier was labelling government departments “absolutely ripe for reform”. “Mr Rees’s new cabinet team will tomorrow be briefed on the grim economic outlook that has put the state’s triple-A credit rating at risk”, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

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