The Premier, Kristina Keneally, has lashed out at her misbehaving MPs and blamed them for a disastrous poll result that revealed the collapse of her once-buoyant satisfaction rating.
The poll, which showed Ms Keneally's satisfaction rating has fallen eight points to 39 per cent, coincided with a threat from her minister for the Hunter, Jodi McKay, not to recontest her seat after the abandonment of a redevelopment plan for the Newcastle CBD.
But while the Premier vowed yesterday to begin rebuilding trust by announcing policies in the coming months, the message was undermined by renewed disquiet over the likely appointment of her chief-of-staff, Walt Secord, to the Legislative Council.
VOTE: Is Premier Kristina Keneally justified in blaming her MPs for her government's falling popularity?Mr Secord, who worked as a media manager for the former premier Bob Carr and the former prime minister Kevin Rudd, is being backed by Ms Keneally and Labor head office to take the seat vacated by the former health minister John Della Bosca.
However, a senior Labor source attacked the appointment of Mr Secord as ''a joke''.
He said that after the federal election result there was widespread concern over the message that installing a figure known for his expertise in manipulating the media but with little policy experience would send to the electorate.
''Labor can't spin to save itself in office and now wants to spin its way back into office from opposition,'' he told the Herald.
The Newspoll put Ms Keneally's satisfaction rating at 39 per cent, which brings her level with the NSW Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell. On a two-party preferred basis, Labor continues to trail the Coalition by 61 to 39.
The poll is a blow for Labor as Ms Keneally's satisfaction rating has until now remained high since she became Premier, offsetting a poor primary vote.
Questioned about the poll, she blamed the behaviour of the former Penrith MP Karyn Paluzzano and the former state development minister Ian Macdonald, who both quit Parliament after scandals, and the Cessnock MP, Kerry Hickey, who revealed he had fathered a child with a parliamentary staff member.
''There are too many examples of ill-disciplined behaviour among individual members of Parliament and it destroys people's confidence and people's trust that the government is focusing on their needs.
''I say this very clearly: if that sort of ill-discipline continues, the blunt reality is that we will lose the election,'' she said.
Ms Keneally said she had spoken to Ms McKay about her suggestion to the Newcastle Herald that she may not contest next year's election after the property trust GPT pulled out of a planned redevelopment of the Newcastle CBD, blaming state government inaction.
However, one MP told the Herald that it might be a case of Ms McKay seeing ''the writing on the wall''. Ms McKay faces a strong threat from the lord mayor of Newcastle, John Tate, who reduced her margin to 1.2 per cent at the 2007 election.
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