When Queensland premier Peter Beattie retired in 2007, we made the following observation in a group email: "Funny how Labor leaders know how to go out on top". Given the group was Joe Hockey's ministerial office in John Howard's government, that caused us a considerable degree of professional trouble.
But we were right! Since then, Liberal PMs Howard and Tony Abbott were terminated by the public and parliamentary peers respectively. The same happened to Campbell Newman and (Penfolds-terminated) Barry O'Farrell, as it did to Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine. Out west, Colin Barnett narrowly avoided the latter fate, but is fast approaching a date with the former.
So Mike Baird's decision, after weeks of agonising, to quit Macquarie Street is a rarity for the conservative side of politics. Despite his overreach blanket banning the state's greyhound racing industry, Baird's was an outstanding administration. Council amalgamations were unpopular at the self-servicing trough of local government but eminently sensible, and that he watered down the draconian liquor licensing laws he inherited from his predecessor O'Farrell is universally overlooked.
Nevertheless, in the wake of Baird's bombshell, the usual halfwits emerged. Proving herself either a moron, an imbecile or an idiot (it would require testing to verify the IQ category), Bronwyn Bishop lamented on Sky News that Baird "wasn't schooled in philosophy, was more managerial, and that's the way socialism can kind of creep into policymaking".
In her flourishing senility, the Beehive is finding a red under every bed (the socialists got Sussan Ley too, remember?). But notwithstanding the fact that privatising $35 billion of public utilities is about as socialist as the HR Nicholls Society, Baird was schooled in theology at Vancouver's prestigious Regent College.
Also on Sky, Ross Cameron lashed Baird's successor Gladys Berejiklian as "a creature of a faction". Employing maximum hyperbole, he claimed "it doesn't matter if the Treasurer "had Abraham Lincoln, Ted Kennedy and Martin Luther King jnr as her colleagues, they would have not a snowball's chance in hell because the people who own the Liberal Party of NSW, [the left's Michael Photios and the centre-right's Nick Campbell] have decided that Gladys will succeed Mike".
First up, Rossco's clearly forgotten about Chappaquiddick. Second, Berejiklian had the numbers to succeed O'Farrell in 2014 but gave Baird a clear run for the good of the government. She'd have done the same then, as now, for either Abe or Dr King. Third, the hard right's talented Dominic Perrottet will be her deputy and treasurer and his guaranteed strong performance will position him as her heir apparent. Fourth, by virtue of her experience, accomplishments, talent and temperament, Berejiklian is, by some distance, the best candidate for the Liberal leadership – even if Alan Jones is fulminating against her ascension as "a stitch up" and a "fait accompli". But the squawking old hussy is only filling his Depend nappy now because the next premier wasn't ordained on the bear rug by his roaring fireplace in the Southern Highlands. Oh, what a travesty! Spare me ...
