Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay slugged it out in Parliament House this week as if their political futures depended on it.

Both NSW political leaders want to deliver a knock-out punch. All observers agree they are on the ropes and that neither can last the course. The Coalition has lost confidence in Berejiklian and NSW Labor has lost confidence in McKay.

If either leader were to face a party room vote of confidence, they would lose. Berejiklian may scramble together a dozen votes from her MPs while McKay would attract about half of that.

They arent being overthrown yet because neither side can agree on a suitable replacement. Party rooms are gripped by inertia and lack of talent.

Ashleigh Raper, the ABCs NSW political reporter, epitomises the fast pace of events in Macquarie Street. When Premier Berejiklian dropped a bucket on McKay in question time on Tuesday, the reporter adopted the Coalitions script and reported that the Labor leaders days were numbered.

Only a few days earlier, Raper had suggested that the Premier was a lost cause. The Coalitions script had changed and so had Rapers.

McKay had co-signed a letter for a Tamil refugee to be released. Neither the refugee advocate who sought the letter nor McKay knew that the refugee had been convicted in 2017 of assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2016 and sentenced to one years jail.

MPs are asked for their support for refugees all the time, and it is to McKays credit that she signed up. In providing a cover note for my constituent (a refugee advocate) I was doing what MPs always do, McKay said. We are all here to serve our communities and, in this instance, I was simply helping my constituent. She had signed a pro forma letter which categorically does not constitute a letter of support.

She was subjected to a withering attack by Labors Hugh McDermott_,_ MP for Prospect, whose Labor heroes are linked to the American CIA, ironworkers union leader Laurie Short and NSW Labor Council boss John Ducker.

McDermott, a former soldier who has embroidered his military career, apologising when caught out, immediately generated an avalanche of hostile media publicity against McKay, claiming she had made a shocking error of judgment. McDermott, a serial embarrassment to the ALP, has never made such an error, it seems.

No one asked whether the Coalition would have mounted its orchestrated attack if the refugee was, like Ms Berejiklian, an Armenian. Why did everyone join the Coalitions racist dog-whistling so enthusiastically?

What was more shocking about the Coalitions hi-jinks was that Ms Berejiklians long list of corrupt practices land deals with former minister Daryl Maguire, her secret lover and potential husband were forgotten, while Labors Jodi McKay became the corrupt leader de jour. You have to hand it to the Coalition managers: in a single question time they managed to shift the spotlight from the Premier to the Opposition Leader. It was a triumph for Liberal Party hypocrisy and cynicism, and the media fell for it.

Ms Berejiklians troubles deepened when the outfit called INSW responsible for infrastructure selection, approval and promotion, announced a world first: the only museum deliberately built in a high-risk flood zone at Parramatta where high velocity floodwaters two to three metres deep will flow underneath the building creating a memorable spectacle. The cost? The Coalition estimates $840 million, but it will clearly be much more than that.

But wait! Theres more. Premier Berejiklian has another trophy for her mantelpiece. Of the worlds 30 global cities, Sydney rates 30th for the number of museums. Surely, that is worth a story in the media?

In the Upper House, a Greens motion by David Shoebridge MP got up by 23 votes to 16 ordering the Government to hand over all documents detailing how it shovelled $177 million in bushfire grants to Coalition-held seats while only a measly 2% went to constituencies held by Labor, Greens or Shooters, Farmers and Fishers. Only Fred Nile joined the Coalition to vote against transparency and accountability for the bushfire rort.

https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/bushfire-rorts-coalition-targets-bushfire-recovery-funds-for-coalition-seats/

But it was explosive revelations by Tony Harris, former NSW Auditor-General, which really damaged the Premier. He revealed that documents relating to spending millions of dollars in Coalition seats had been removed by staff and destroyed.

Shredding official documents is tantamount to perverting the course of justice. It is a criminal offence and anyone convicted could be jailed.

But Ms Berejiklian brushed aside the complaints and said as she always does that she had done nothing wrong. Really?

If a NSW citizen received $250 million and the ATO asked where it came from, it would be a foolish person who replied that the documents had been shredded. You would end up in jail.

Harris appeared to suggest that the destruction of Cabinet documents had ended Ms Berejiklians premiership and she should resign forthwith. The pressure mounts

This article also appears on his blog, cometherevolution.com.au