Circling the wagons for Gladys

The turmoil in NSW involving Premier Gladys Berejiklian is nothing compared with Machiavellian cover-ups in Victoria.

Well, maybe, or maybe not. Setting aside the 800 Covid deaths in Victoria and looking past the events of the last week or so to the overall records of the two regimes, the differences between the appalling governments of the two states are differences of degree, not kind. To suggest otherwise would be to commit a category error.

Much of the right-of-centre reaction to Berejiklian's woes has been couched in terms of Daniel Andrews. Like Scott Morrison, Gladys is lucky she has Andrews also occupying the stage at present as a point of contrast. Andrews makes everyone else look like a cross between Churchill and Mother Teresa. He has become the nation's whipping boy, in part for merely implementing grotesquely wrong Covid policies more disastrously than everyone else did. (And yes, I know that 800 people died on his watch).

For the third defence of Gladys, there is the anti ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) brigade.

This is the Gerard Henderson argument. ICAC destroys innocent premiers. Not quite. The NSW Independents of the day did Greiner in. Who can say why Barry O'Farrell left the building? Perhaps he just didn't want to be there. No, arguing that ICAC is over zealous – if one accepts that it is – does not exonerate Gladys. Whereas I say – thank God for ICAC. With both political parties historically compromised in the gutter state, and with the Liberal Party showing no signs whatsoever they get it, and intend to clean it up, we sure as hell need somebody to round up the crooks. As for ICAC's powers, well just look at Victoria's equivalent to see how a crime buster without teeth performs. You almost wouldn't know it was there.

Fourth, there is the argument that they all do it in New South Wales.

Gladys is no worse than all the others. In a private conversation this week with my local member, the NSW Treasurer said – what about Macdonald and Obeid? Well, what about them? There was Rex Jackson. Yes there was Richard Torbay. Joe "tripod" Tripodi. Milton Orkopoulos (God help us). New South Wales is utterly tarnished with corruption. Pointing out all of the past corrupt and crooked behaviour of MPs merely highlights the need to root out current corruption, I would have thought. Reminding people of past indiscretions by the other side is, again, true but irrelevant.

Fifth, there is blatant circling the wagons behaviour.

She is a Lib so she must be saved. The old warhorse John Howard has been wheeled out, reminding us of his residual high regard and still unexpended political capital. Blueblood Liberals defend whoever is in office flying the flag. John Howard defended Malcolm Turnbull, of course. Even helped him talk himself out of retirement. This was surely the greatest blunder ever by a former Australian prime minister.

Many of the right-of-centre punditocracy are deeply embedded in the network of Liberal Party linked think tanks and assorted organisations and networks. Take for example one of Gladys's strongest defenders this week, Janet Albrechtsen. She is Chair of the Institute of Public Affairs, both a breeding laboratory (Tim Wilson, James Paterson) and a retirement home (David Kemp) for Liberal Party politicians. A Venn Diagram of IPA and Liberal Party donors would make for interesting observation. Albrechtsen is also very close to the Liberal Party "powerbroker" Michael Kroger, who many south of the Murray regard as a toxic factional influence and hold accountable for the abysmal non-performance of the Victorian Liberals over some decades. In turn, Kroger is very close to Mr NSW Liberal Party, Michael Photios.

So no mystery to Janet's vigorous defence of Photios's girl in Macquarie Street.

It is disappointing, even if expected, that those who would normally be cheering for high standards in politics let their guard down when it comes to one of their own. I understand that political war is war, and that the combatants should play for keeps. This should not extend to defending second rate leaders like Gladys Berejiklian in second rate political outfits like the NSW Liberals.

It is a bit of a giveaway that so many articles have been written in the past few days about the Premier State's history of corruption. Yes, as always, the Rum Corps gets a guernsey. If the current premier isn't "tarnished", why all the subsequent outpourings about New South Wales' sordid history? No, everyone knows she is tarnished, and should go. Not because anyone better from the sorry NSW Liberal Party would replace her – they are all mere puppets of the hidden, leftist factional bosses – but rather because showing Gladys the door just might signify the start of a very, very long road back for the State to probity, decency, transparency and principled politics.

We-the-people should expect no less.