Well, it’s official. Mike Baird is a sock puppet. All we have to do now is work out for whom.
If only he had read my blog of last week, perhaps he would have understood my comparative analysis of the mood in 1996 with the mood 20 years later in 2016, particularly amongst Liberals.
It was in 1996 that former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss made the observation at the tail end of the politically correct Keating years that the people were sitting in their rocking chairs, out on their porches waiting with their baseball bats.
It’s impossible to understand, given the zeitgeist of the moment, what has possessed Mike Baird to go down this path of forced amalgamations.
And it’s impossible to understate the potential damage not just to the Liberal Party but to the nation, if this single act brings about a Shorten Federal government on July 2, which I believe it has the potential to do.
With a Federal election just 54 days away and with the Liberal Party already on the ropes and struggling to stay on its feet, he unceremoniously blunders in and seals its fate with a metaphorical kick to the groin.
What ever happened to all the blather about community consultations?
What about a fireside chat and taking the people into your confidence and explaining yourself?
What a radical concept.
He quite obviously didn’t consult with his Federal counterparts.
Today’s brutal decision, once again, simply goes to underline and demonstrate that the major party, political class are not to be believed.
On anything.
Baird’s decision simply feeds the cynicism and the narrative in the minds of average Australians that the politicians can’t be trusted to look them squarely in the eye and level with them.
So much for government of, by, and for the people.
As I said last week, this will hurt them.
There are many state government members who know what’s at stake and who right now are feeling decidedly uncomfortable about their future prospects as they strap on their hard hats while looking over their shoulder for voters brandishing baseball bats.
And, declaring a personal interest in this horse race on July 2, it is my view that Baird’s unforced error, his own goal and rash decision, will boost the chances of independents immeasurably.
When people are angry, and feel ignored and inconsequential, they lash out. They don’t differentiate and the lines between state and Federal issues begin to blur.
Roll on July 2.