Premier Berejiklian has stepped down while the investigation by ICAC takes place into the seedy behaviour of her erstwhile manfriend, Daryl Maguire. She should not have indulged him but we should await the findings to see what else she did.
At least she was honest enough to admit that the community grants were skewed for electoral advantage, unlike her Federal counterparts, and she was right in saying it’s what parties do.
She also stood down promptly, isn’t suing the ABC, and isn’t looking for an overseas post, as far as we know.
It turns out her instincts were pretty right on lockdown. Daily case numbers are gradually falling and despite having almost three times more Covid patients hospitalised than Victoria, NSW hospitals seem to be coping. It remains to be seen what happens when NSW opens up but so far, the prediction of a peak in numbers this month looks less likely.
Berejiklian turned up for the grueling daily press conferences and calmly reported the bad news.
She oversaw bold action on climate by her energy minister, so at odds with her party at the Federal level.
She said she stepped down because of the high regard she had for the office of Premier. Others might just have toughed it out with their sense of entitlement.
The contenders for her replacement are all men so Berejiklian’s departure leaves us with only one female leader in the country – Anastasia Palaszczuk in Queensland. That’s only one out of eight premiers and chief ministers. It’s not good enough.