Mike Baird’s legacy as NSW Premier is not one former Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson would be proud of.
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Mr Baird listed job creation, economic rejuvenation and boosts to frontline services and infrastructure as major achievements of his government when he announced his resignation on Thursday.
But Mr Dickerson, who lost his position as the city’s mayor when Dubbo and Wellington councils were forcibly amalgamated in 2016, said regional NSW hadn’t really benefited from Mr Baird’s leadership.
“In 20 years time when you look back, they’ll say he was the guy who forced amalgamations despite the promise of no forced amalgamations,” Mr Dickerson said.
“The second thing will be privatisation … and all the money that was going to inject. We just really aren’t seeing the benefits of that.
“I just don’t think there was enough consideration of the decisions that he was making … I don’t think they were right for regional NSW.
“I think that legacy is not a legacy that I would be proud of.”
But speaking to the media on Thursday, Mr Baird defended his legacy, saying he had always striven to do what was right, not what was popular.
“Council amalgamations, I strongly believe will deliver long-term benefits for every member of NSW,” he said.
“It will provide huge opportunities and much more competitiveness into the long term. Now my argument obviously in some areas hasn’t won the day yet but you look across other jurisdictions and it has and when it’s happened it has delivered benefits and everyone moved on.
“What is the point of being in this role and being in government if you’re not trying to do, with every ounce of you’re being, what is right?”
Mr Baird’s now abandoned greyhound ban was also hugely controversial across regional NSW, and prompted criticisms he was out of touch with regional voters.
His back-flip on the matter wasn’t enough to keep the seat of Orange in National party hands. Nor was it enough to save the political skin of Dubbo MP Troy Grant, who stepped down as deputy premier as the Orange by-election votes were being counted.
Given the series of “bad decisions”, Mr Dickerson said, Mr Baird’s resignation was inevitable.
“As an individual … and in the one-on-one discussions I had a lot of time for him [Mr Baird],” he said.
“I thought there was a person there who could be a very good leader and I suspect after the last election it was almost one of those situations where the power sort of when to their heads.
“I think a lot of bad decisions finally caught up with him. We’ll never know the exact reason but I expect there would have been a bit of pressure from within the party [to step down].”
He said moves like the ‘Offers over’ changes to real estate were “out of touch”, and hoped the next premier of NSW would focus more on regional NSW.