IN the face of fierce public criticism of the NSW Government’s stadiums rebuild, Premier Gladys Berejiklian is proving unbending and resolute – but is she proving unbending and resolute on the right issue?
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There must be more than one person in her office who is pondering that question.
Ms Berejiklian showed an early willingness to walk away from unpopular policies when she assumed the premiership early in 2017 and ended the fight over council mergers in the months that followed.
With the forced mergers firing up bush constituents and John Barilaro having taken over the top job for the NSW Nats, Ms Berejiklian made the surprising but safe decision not to pursue the council amalgamations still being fought by unwilling participants.
It ended a long-running headache for the NSW Government, but left a mismatched patchwork of small and mega councils, simultaneously punishing the compliant and rewarding the argumentative.
When the NSW Government’s new Fire and Emergency Services Levy proved similarly hot, Ms Berejiklian backed down on that one as well, setting what might have been a precedent.
But then along came the announcement that two Sydney sporting stadiums would be torn down and replaced at a cost of around $2 billion and Ms Berejiklian decided the time to stand firm had arrived.
And stand firm she has.
The outcry over the decision has died down a little over the Christmas break, but the policy still seems in desperate need of friends.
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett and long-time sports writer Roy Masters both gamely took up a position in defence of the rebuilds in the past week, but the arguments don’t seem to be biting.
Sydney people don’t seem to want the rebuilds, country people certainly don’t want them (the money would be better spent on filling regional needs) and the NSW Opposition seems to have found its slogan for the year and a bit until the next election.
But Ms Berejiklian stands firm.
Perhaps the Premier thinks there have already been too many backdowns. Perhaps this is an issue for which she has a great passion. Perhaps she can’t face the press conference where she announces it’s all off.
Whatever the reason, Ms Berejiklian seems to have found her line in the sand. And it’s a line few people would have predicted.
