Any semblance of good faith that remained between the NSW people and its State Government was obliterated yesterday as yet another minister resigned in scandal - this time Paul McLeay for inappropriate use of his work computer.

So badly eroded - non-existent, we would say - is the level of confidence in this Government that it should do the right thing and call an early election.

And if it does not have the good grace to do so, Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell would be well within his rights to ask Governor Marie Bashir to intervene and sack an administration that has not only lost its way but its will, its moral compass and its mandate to govern.

We have no joy in saying this. The Labor Party in this nation and in this state has a long history of representing the values and aspirations of working-class people like those in the Illawarra. Indeed, before the federal election we editorialised that we believed a Gillard government, all things considered, would be best to lead the nation.

But this state Labor government is simply awful. It has lurched from crisis to crisis. Even putting aside the constant soap opera of sex scandals, lies and affairs of its MPs, the Government can barely manage an envelope opening without controversy.

Mr McLeay, the Minister for the Illawarra, had trumpeted that NSW Labor had lost only one MP in the federal election and Premier Kristina Keneally was equally in denial as she downplayed the NSW effect. But NSW Labor is toxic and this has damaged the wider Labor brand.

It could be argued that this is what we have fixed-term elections for - a scheduled time when voters have the chance to vent their spleen and to make change.

But what we face in NSW is an excruciating almost seven-month wait before this Government is inevitably thrown out. In the meantime, are we expected just to let things degenerate further in Australia's biggest state?

Today we say to the Premier, put us out of misery. Do the right thing and call an early election.