WHO GOVERNS IN NEW SOUTH WALES? People and processes in the Carr Government

Abstract

This is a study of the power relationships that existed in the Labor government led by former Premier Bob Carr in the period 1995 to 2005. Specifically, this is a study of how formal and informal power interact to affect political outcomes. It demonstrates how informal power, residing outside existing governmental and parliamentary structures, can contribute to the success or failure of government initiatives.

The political processes and outcomes are studied primarily through two case studies – both momentous in the life of the government, both lying outside routine policy areas, one resulting in political success the other in political failure. All the normal case study techniques (such as press reports and official documents) are used. In particular, however, the research relies principally on elite interviews with more than 40 key actors. As a result, much deeper and more complete accounts of these episodes is given than is so far on the public record.

The first case study is Treasurer Michael Egan’s attempt to privatise government owned electricity assets in 1997. The analysis illustrates how non-government institutions (including the union movement, party factions, and the NSW State Labor Conference) impeded government reform.

The second is the delivery of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. Here the research observes how two individual actors, Sydney Olympics Minister Michael Knight and Director-General of Sydney 2000 David Richmond took control of and delivered a successful Sydney Olympic Games by wielding informal authority outside existing parliamentary structures (for example, through the creation of Games Co-ordination Group, the wielding of informal power through leadership traits that amplified influence, the employment of powerful teams, and the side-lining of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games).