NSW Premier Nathan Rees may have intended to take a broom to Labor’s ministry, but it looks more like the former greenkeeper used a rake missing a few teeth.
Rees has lopped some tall poppies and is cultivating some new seeds in a cabinet makeover designed to win back voters between now and March 2011.
Morris Iemma and Michael Costa have been bagged and binned, and there is little chance Reba Meagher and Frank Sartor will be recycled.
But exactly what all this will yield remains to be seen.
Controversial factional figure Joe Tripodi remains a force in cabinet, John Della Bosca has re-emerged, while powerbroker Eddie Obeid still lingers on the backbench.
Is it really going to be a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, as Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell suggests?
“Joe Tripodi is still there, Eddie Obeid’s still calling the shots,” Mr O’Farrell said yesterday.
“It’s not the parliament making decisions about who’s going to be premier, who’s going to be deputy premier - who’s in, and out - it’s people down in Sussex Street (ALP NSW head office).”
Della Bosca will not face charges from the Iguanas affair, but he still comes back to cabinet with a lot of baggage.
The donut-loving Tripodi, despite the power he wields behind the scenes, is publicly associated with allegations of branch stacking and drunken behaviour towards a Democrats staffer.
He still has much to offer the government, Rees argues.
Possibly even as treasurer, if the speculation is correct. And you thought it would be difficult to replace Michael Costa with someone more unpopular.
Obeid is roundly disliked for, well, being Eddie Obeid - viewed as the party’s highly-litigious puppet-master.
In resigning from the left on Friday night, Rees may have tried to opt out of the factional brawling - but whether he likes it or not, he has some heavyweights to contend with in Obeid, Tripodi and Della Bosca.
The right still has the numbers “and will continue to be the dominant factor inside the caucus,” political analyst Bruce Hawker observed.
Rees said courage, hard work and talent would be the criteria for his frontbench selections, but this has left some wondering about the final line-up. Graham West, who is best known for nearly fainting at a press conference, and Kevin Greene both survived what should have been their swan song, while other strong options were ignored.
