Mike Baird has done a Steve Bracks, Malcolm Turnbull has lost a crucial ally and the Australian political landscape will be much poorer for the shock departure of the New South Wales premier.
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You've played a great innings: Turnbull
There've been fond farewells for NSW Premier Mike Baird from Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten. Courtesy ABC News 24.
Baird joins the most exclusive club of Australian leaders: those who jump before their colleagues or the voters decide their time is up. The surprise is that he has done it so soon.
His reasons are compelling, but the result is to reduce the talent pool in state politics generally, the loss of a moderate voice when the middle ground is under assault from the right, and the injection of another dose of uncertainty into a political system that has overdosed on instability for far too long.
Plain-speaking, self-deprecating, principled and courageous, Baird's departure will also reverberate across the nation because the country has lost a persuasive reformer and a "good bloke" to boot, one who had the capacity to attract others into politics.
No wonder South Australia's Labor Premier Jay Weatherill tweeted "say it aint so" as soon as he heard the news. Weatherill said Baird's advocacy within the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) would be a huge loss and he is dead right.
The similarities with Bracks' resignation as Victorian premier are striking. Both had an appeal that transcended party affiliations and a decency that even their opponents appreciated. For both men, family reasons played a large part in the decision to walk away.
Both left at roughly the same age (Baird is 48, Bracks was 52) and both maintained they were utterly spent. "I couldn't have given any more than I have given over the past eight years to this state," said Bracks in 2007.
Baird summed up how he felt after six years – three as treasurer, almost three as premier – in identical terms.
Aside from being there longer, the big difference was that Bracks left at a time when his party was ascendant, though that did not save his government at the next election.
Baird's gloss had faded on several fronts in the past 12 months, from council elections and lockout laws to the ban on greyhound racing. But his achievements are many and will endure and he could have recovered had he chosen to contest the election still is two years away.
For Turnbull, the value of having a moderate, popular and charismatic leader in his home, and Australia's most populous, state was immeasurable. Now that back-up is missing and the outlook is as uncertain as ever.
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