Left, Right, Left, Right - NSW Labor marching to its death.

Further to my post of yesterday, here is an extract from an email to one of my brothers, in Canberra, who had asked for my impressions of our new "left wing" Labor leadership in NSW.

I confess to not having known that Rees was supposedly "of the left" (before he was appointed Premier). I can now tell you that the labels "left" and "right"  mean little or nothing in NSW Politics - it means the label of the group you hang around with (who your political "Mates" are), rather than signifying anything about what you believe in. None of these people believe in anything.  

Forget Socialism, or Ben Chifley's Light on the Hill.

I had a meeting with my local Member when I first got involved in the Kangaloon Aquifer campaign. His opening statements to us were like this:

• NSW's economy is the engine of the Australian Economy (which is palpably false, by the way)
• Sydney is the growth centre of the NSW economy
• We need to ensure Sydney's water supply is secure, in order to maintain confidence of the International Market in Sydney (and therefore in NSW, and therefore in the Australian economy).

For the record, I wanted to discuss the environmental impacts of the draining of the Kangaloon Aquifer, and to a lesser extent, the likely social impacts of the pumping program on the local rural community. 

I may as well have been talking to a Merchant Banker, not a Labor Member of Parliament. From an old-fashioned Labor Party supporter, I can think of no greater criticism. But to the new Labor politicians, they would not even see the problem.

This is symptomatic of the dire state of NSW politics.