Labor’s hegemony was an aberration matched only once in Australian history by a similarly brief period of conservative rule in 1969 and 1970. Projecting recent trends forward would see the defeat of the Bligh Government in Queensland next year, the Rann Government in early 2010 and the Rees Government in NSW in early 2011.

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees says rumours that a leopard inhabits bushland on Sydney’s outskirts cannot be dismissed, because the safety of children could be at risk.

The $12 billion North West Metro is not expected to survive in its current form, and four big Rail Clearways projects worth $1 billion, promised by the New South Wales Government but not yet built, are also at risk. It is also possible the Government might defer the $1.37 billion South West Rail Link from Glenfield to Leppington.

With the stench of the Wollongong Council corruption scandal, developer donations and the New South Wales State Government’s radical planning reforms believed to be the main reasons for the Labor Party’s fall from favour, the Premier, Nathan Rees, said voters had sent a clear message to his Government.

Beleaguered Labor MP Noreen Hay has been dumped as a New South Wales parliamentary secretary by Premier Nathan Rees. The move comes after the member for Wollongong was caught up in the scandal surrounding disgraced police minister Matt Brown’s drunken romp at a post-budget party in June. Mr. Brown was sacked yesterday after news of his actions became public.

A witness said Matt Brown, who was sworn in just three days ago, stripped down to his “very brief” underpants and danced to loud “Oxford Street-style” techno music on a green leather Chesterfield couch he had recently ordered for his office. The witness said Mr Brown “mounted the chest” of Wollongong MP Noreen Hay.

With the outcome of the Western Australian election in doubt and upheavals in New South Wales, the aftershocks of the weekend’s ruptures in the Labor Party will be felt in Canberra. But other parties also have their problems. From coast-to-coast Labor governments to coast-to-coast confusion has taken a mere 10 months.

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees says he will not be raising taxes to fix the state’s economic woes, but has labelled government departments “absolutely ripe for reform”. Mr Rees’s new cabinet team will tomorrow be briefed on the grim economic outlook that has put the state’s triple-A credit rating at risk.

John Della Bosca’s return to the New South Wales Cabinet from exile ends a difficult three months under the threat of criminal charges over allegations that he and his wife, federal MP Belinda Neal, bullied staff at a Central Coast night club and then pressured witnesses to change their statements.

The restructured New South Wales cabinet was sworn in by Lieutenant-Governor Jim Spigelman, in a ceremony at Government House in Sydney. With six new ministers and significant changes to the portfolios of several others, the cabinet is a radical change to the line-up of former premier Morris Iemma.