Mr Iemma and his motley crew went into the poll backed by a swag of election promises that they made it perfectly clear they were able to fund.

Last week it became apparent pretty much every big ticket item the Iemma Government had pledged itself to carry out between March last year and 2011 was now contingent on its being able to flog off NSW’s power generation ability.

The pity is that this point wasn’t spelt out prior to the poll.

Odds are, given the underwhelming support for the privatisation push across the board – including within Mr Iemma’s own party – Labor would not be currently in power if it had ‘fessed up and told the electorate it didn’t have anything in the kitty.

This, of course, is a remarkable development given that in the last 10 years State Governments have reaped windfall gains from stamp duty receipts, payroll taxes and land taxes.

It is also hard to explain given the decade long boom in consumer spending has meant returns from the GST – which all go to the states – have been much higher than predicted.

Apart from one heck of an Olympic party – and post Olympic hangover – almost a decade back not that much seems to have been done in NSW.

When you look at infrastructure investment outside of the capital cities the expression “sod all” springs to mind.

Then there is the question of just how well the money has been the spent.

It would appear the new Bathurst hospital was so well handled the residents now wish they had the old one back...

That is a problem we don’t have in Tamworth.

Despite Mr Iemma saying our new hospital was a goer in the State Parliament and Health Minister Reba Meagher coming here to say the same thing the $135 million project is now “under review”.

It will remain there until almost 70 days from now when Mr Costa – or whoever happens to be the treasurer on that particular day – hands down his

“mini-budget”.

We can hardly wait....