I'll Win This War, Iemma Tells Plotters
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday July 12, 2008
MORRIS IEMMA is vowing to fight senior officials in his party as they wage a "psychological war" to force him out of office, saying "they underestimate my character".
In the face of a campaign by Labor's general secretary, Karl Bitar, and his followers to oust him as the Premier, Mr Iemma conceded yesterday that his policy of electricity privatisation "could drag me down" but vowed to keep fighting. Mr Iemma expressed amazement in an interview with the Herald that people like Mr Bitar, who he had known for more than a decade, could believe that they could frighten him out of the job. He said such people should know that the more determined they were to force him out, the more determined he was to stay. "They're not going to succeed by thinking I'm just going to slink out the back door, and how on earth they think that is beyond me because anyone who knows me know it's the exact opposite ... They're sadly mistaken that, with a psychological war, I'll just put my hand up, put the shutters up and away I go." In a swipe at a continuing campaign of destabilisation against him by the party's head office, Mr Iemma said: "If their determination is to never give the Government any clear air, then who's going to win in the end? It'll be Barry O'Farrell and the Libs, and not because they're a credible alternative." The Herald revealed yesterday that the Labor Party head office's tactics involved persuading MPs individually that there was an alternative to Mr Iemma. Mr Bitar has been spruiking four possible contenders to the MPs: the Deputy Premier, John Watkins; the Minister for Water, Nathan Rees; the former frontbencher Carmel Tebbutt; and the Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor. It is understood the party's head office hopes Mr Iemma will see the writing on the wall in the face of recent bad poll results and go gracefully. The worst was a two-party preferred poll in The Sun-Herald last month that went against the Government, 56 per cent to 44 per cent. Senior Government sources say one of the architects of the campaign against Mr Iemma is Senator Mark Arbib, Mr Bitar's predecessor, who fell out with Mr Iemma last year. The sources said Senator Arbib wanted to rebuild his NSW Right machine power base and wanted his man or woman in the premier's job. Yesterday Senator Arbib called the allegations of his involvement "laughable".The Herald has also been told some party officials have been advising employees in ministerial offices to consider seeking other work in coming weeks because their ministers support Mr Iemma. In a sign of how dirty the fight is getting, the Herald was also posted anonymous allegations against Mr Bitar yesterday. Mr Iemma said the four potential leadership contenders had contacted him and pledged total support. He said for party officials to begin meeting MPs to campaign against him without a candidate was "unprecedented". But he said it was ironic that the tactics Labor's head office was using against him mimicked those employed to install him as premier after Bob Carr retired in 2005. At that time MPs were shown internal polling and told that Carl Scully was unelectable and Morris Iemma was the party's best chance, and preselections were threatened. Yesterday afternoon he met Mr Bitar for about half an hour in the Premier's office. Afterwards Mr Bitar issued a statement: "We had a good, constructive meeting where we both discussed working together and moving forward." Mr Rees publicly ruled out any tilt at the top job yesterday, and Mr Iemma said he could not imagine Mr Rees challenging. "Nathan's a young man with a lot of ability and a lot of capacity and he's a friend of mine ... so it [a leadership challenge] doesn't arise. I went to the national executive [to get him preselected] and fast-tracked him into the ministry and he's a friend." Mr Iemma said Mr Bitar, another person he considers a friend, was acting against him because of pressures he had from the union movement after Mr Iemma proceeded towards electricity privatisation despite the party's state conference voting against it, 702 votes to 107. "[Mr Bitar's] future depends on the votes of the conference ... his future depends on the support of the [party's] admin committee," Mr Iemma said. "He's been re-elected and I think it's the disconnect that's occurred between the parliamentary wing, the industrial wing and he's caught in the middle. He's genuinely caught in the middle." He said Mr Bitar was one of his campaign workers "in the trenches" in the marginal seat of Hurstville when he ran there in 1991, and he thought Mr Bitar would have known his character and that he would not be frightened out of office. "How they would come to that assessment is a big mistake because they're not going to succeed," Mr Iemma said. "What's going to happen here is this - we've got two options. We've got to work together and see it through or their resolve is to keep puncturing the Government. "I'm not going anywhere. They think they can use electricity to drive a wedge in the Government. They're wrong." Mr Iemma said he did not expect a job that was "all singing and dancing" but his "quiet manner" should not be mistaken for a lack of "steely resolve". He said there was no question his leadership was partly under threat because poll numbers had dipped after the Iguanas affair last month, when his minister John Della Bosca and Mr Della Bosca's wife, the federal MP Belinda Neal, were said to have threatened and abused nightclub staff. "The whole incident - it would've been better if it just never happened," Mr Iemma said. Mr Iemma has been accused of threatening the MP for Drummoyne, Angela D'Amore, with the withdrawal of funding for infrastructure in her electorate after she spoke publicly against the Government. "I haven't been about crushing people. I'm tough and determined and steely but I haven't been about crushing people at all. I don't harbour grudges because I've got a much bigger job to do than focusing on pettiness. "I'd be very surprised if you found anybody who would say I focus on petty squabbles. I don't harbour any grudges or bitterness at all." Of the electricity privatisation, he conceded: "It could drag me down. What's the option? What's the alternative? The alternative is that you don't do it, you don't tackle this challenge in the same way that you don't tackle the challenges of infrastructure for the state." His opponents have said he is likely to go because of concerns about spending more time with his wife, Santina, and four children, but Mr Iemma said: "She is of a mind [that I should] stick it out."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
