The ballad of Kristina Keneally.
Friday, 03 December 2021
On this day, in 2009 - then Labor Premier of NSW Nathan Rees was under attack from corrupt politician Eddie Obeid.
Obeid wanted Rees gone.
Rees was costing Obeid access to the slippery, money making corners of government
Obied organised just the perfect replacement … the model of a modern, understanding politician to take Rees’ place.
Obeid was a criminal - now in jail.
One of his partners in politics was Joe Tripodi.
They did the numbers and were aiming for Rees.
Rees could see the scumbags coming and was about to get rolled.
He famously said:
“Should I not be Premier by the end of this day, let there be no doubt in the community's mind, no doubt, that any challenger will be a puppet of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi.”
By sunset, the highly litigious and very vain Kristina Keneally was Premier.
Within 18 months she would be voted out in the biggest landslide in NSW political history.
The public hated her Premiership.
Since then, for some reason KK has been offered more lifelines from Labor than any failed politician ever - the latest being a parachute into a super safe seat.
….No one knows why.
Courageous Kristina remains “nobody’s girl”. Tripodi was found to be corrupt by ICAC and Obied will likely die in jail.
To this day, Rees maintains his decency and knows he was right.