Kristina Keneally- Union Puppet or Dame in Shining Armour?

“I am nobody’s puppet, I am nobody’s protégé, I am nobody’s girl"
Kristina Keneally, December 2009

When Nathan Rees was forced out of the pole position in December last year, his outgoing gift to the NSW Opposition, and warning to the NSW public, was the promise that whoever replaced him would be just another union ‘puppet.’

Over the following four months the new Premier, well coiffed and media savvy, fought hard to shake that image.

She spent the summer travelling around the state, being seen at every flood; fire; school opening; down mines; drought affected areas; effortlessly riding her bike to Parliament, sipping desalination plant water as if it were expensive Sav Blanc.

She tried hard to distance herself from her tainted Government and create what has become known as ‘Brand Keneally.’

And slowly but surely, the rumble around town became more positive, people starting to talk about the ‘hot’ new Premier.

Women wanted to be her, and men, well, wanted to be with her. The tide began to turn from the negative obsession with the Labor Government to one, for long suffering Labor supporters, of almost nervous hope.

Aussies love to back an underdog and Keneally had underdog qualities.

The odds of her surviving the public’s fierce scrutiny were not good. A woman with a much criticized, stubborn American twang that refused to leave her despite years of speech classes, she was pushed into the limelight to try and resurrect a Government everyone had long ago lost hope in.

Considering the rabble that is her Government and the stench left from the corruption that plagued Labor since before the doomed Morris Iemma took over the reins in 2007, even the most die hard Liberal will agree she has done pretty well.

Kristina Keneally has come out looking disturbingly dame-in-shining-armouresque like.

That is, perhaps, until now.

For anyone that actually follows the daily ins and outs of state politics in NSW, Monday May 3rd 2010 should be a day to remember, the day Nathan Rees’s puppet prediction came true.

Or at the risk of being over dramatic, at least the day Kristina dropped the polished guise of being a stand-alone player.

Kristina Keneally was invited by the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) to officially open the new $1 billion coal loader. The coal loader will shift up to 30 million tonnes a year and provide jobs to around 800 people for two to three years.

New infrastructure and more jobs is exactly what this broke and struggling state needs. After recently wasting $500 million on the failed CBD Metro project the Premier should be welcoming this huge contribution to the economy with arms wide open.

Yet the opening was snubbed by Kristina Keneally and her entire Cabinet.

Why?

Because the Maritime Union of Australia lobbied her to boycott the opening, citing problems with collective union work agreements.

The questions this raises are;

- Does this spell the beginning of the end of Kristina being able to keep the unions at arms length?
- Was she right in boycotting this event at the behest of the unions and a workplace agreement?
- What power does Government have to intervene in work place agreements?

My prediction?

Unfortunately for Kristina, despite her most valiant efforts, she has already stumbled and will ultimately either be dragged down by union bullies, or else fall at the hands of the mistakes made by her stale and corrupt Government.