I’d go with O’Farrell being one of the best leaders. He didn’t actually do much during his short stint in power (he sowed the seeds of a few interesting projects that have become reality, though), but he fell on his sword when he was right at his peak of popularity. Baird fought both the conservatives and the liberals by introducing the lockouts AND the greyhound racing ban and lost out big time. Gladys, she’s not a great figurehead I’d say. She doesn’t project the ‘leader’ image very well, especially at press conferences. She was better in the more behind the scenes roles as Transport Minister and Treasurer…
Rees and Keneally were by far the worst, overseeing MASSIVELY incompetent governments running about like headless chooks.
IMO the pattern that seemed to emerge in my mind is that NSW Labor were massively incompetent and couldn’t govern (see the great stagnation of 2000-2010 because their “act as if Sydney’s full while the immigrants continue to flow in” strategy didn’t work). The Libs are avoiding (low interest) government debt at all costs, which means selling off the family silver. I think their governance over various things has been better than Labor’s, especially with infrastructure projects.
Jodi McKay - GOD HELP US if she becomes next premier. She doesn’t seem to know what she’s talking about half the time. The standard position seems to be “oppose the government, even if it’s an objectively good idea”. And her two predecessors weren’t great either, and that’s BEFORE you consider one of them sexually assaulted an ABC journalist.
IMO Labor would probably be a shoe-in if they got some progressive policies under their belt so they could start making real points of difference between them and the Liberals other than ‘tRaInS tOo WiDe FoR tHe TuNnElS!!!’, but NSW Labor is mostly controlled by the Right faction (controlled by old Catholics and quite religious ethnic groups) so that’s not going to happen any time soon.