NSW: Major events in the first year of Nathan Rees as premier

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2009
NSW: Major events in the first year of Nathan Rees as premier

SYDNEY, Aug 27 AAP - Timeline of major events in NSW Premier Nathan Rees' first year in office.



2008

Sept 5 - Becomes NSW premier after Morris Iemma loses the support of the controlling
Right faction.



Sept 7 - Announces new cabinet.



Sept 11 - Matt Brown forced to resign as police minister after revelations he danced
semi-naked and simulated a sex act on Wollongong MP Noreen Hay during a late-night party
in the parliament.



Sept 19 - Iemma quits politics, following other recent resignations of former health
minister Reba Meagher and former deputy premier John Watkins. Former treasurer Michael
Costa quits the upper house four days later.



Oct 17 - Former Unions NSW boss John Robertson fills the upper house vacancy left by
departure of Costa.



Oct 18 - Labor loses Ryde by-election and suffers massive swings against it in other
safe Sydney Labor seats of Lakemba and Cabramatta.



Oct 24 - Rees scraps Iemma's planned north-western Sydney metro in favour of a CBD
metro, finishing at Rozelle in the city's inner-west.



Nov 3 - Tony Stewart stood aside as small business minister pending an investigation
into allegations he bullied a female staffer.



Nov 11 - Poorly received mini-budget handed down bringing in a range of new charges
and taxes, including charging students for school travel passes and time of day tolling
for Sydney Harbour Bridge and Tunnel.

- Stewart sacked from frontbench after inquiry determined he bullied female staff member.



Nov 25 - Stewart launches Supreme Court action aimed at overturning his sacking from
the ministry.



Dec 16 - Newspoll has Labor's primary vote in NSW at a historic low of 26 per cent.



Dec 21 - Rees backflips and keeps student travel passes free following backlash from
community and some of his own MPs.





2009

Jan 7 - Marries high school sweetheart Stacey Haines while on holiday in New York City.



Jan 15 - Health Minister John Della Bosca denies plot to dump Rees as leader.



Jan 30 - John Robertson and Monaro MP Steve Whan promoted to front bench.



Feb 19 - Rees says he's unhappy with the $500,000 budget to refurbish Robertson's office,
after initially defending the outlay.



Feb 26 - Holds two-day job summit in Sydney.



March 3 - Announces major overhaul of child protection strategy in NSW following Wood inquiry.



March 19 - Rees says he'd rather have musician Brian Eno in Sydney for three weeks
than match Melbourne's boast of having golfer Tiger Woods for just three days.



March 29 - New laws to ban bikie gangs announced after a fatal brawl at Sydney Airport.



March 30 - Sydney CBD sent into chaos after a peak hour blackout which also exposed
failures in the city's emergency warning system. Second major outage occurs days later.



May 1 - Government backs down on mini-budget plans to privatise Cessnock jail but says
it will proceed with sell-off of Sydney's Parklea.



May 8 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd avoids answering questions about supposed frosty
relationship with Rees.



May 12 - NSW largely misses out on the infrastructure spend in Rudd government's budget.



May 22 - NSW's north coast declared a natural disaster zone after severe storms and
flooding battered the region.



June 2 - Entire road's portion of the NSW budget ends up in the hands of the state
opposition a fortnight before its due to be handed down.



June 9 - Backbench MP Frank Sartor says claims he would challenge Rees as leader within
weeks are a beat up but refuses to rule out a tilt at the top job.



June 11 - Rees announces NSW's 160 agencies will be merged into 13 super departments
in the biggest public sector reform in 30 years.



June 16 - State budget handed down amid a sea of red ink, including a $1.3 billion
deficit for 07/08 and a forecast deficit of $990 million the following year.



June 17 - Rees forced to defend his government's "buy Australian" procurement policy
contained in the budget.



June 25 - Labor MPs abandon the upper house before a vote on plans to sell-off NSW
Lotteries can be brought on amid fears the bill could be defeated.



July 9 - Rees announces a ban on bottled water in all government agencies, only for
it later to be revealed three companies have contracts to supply it until March 2011.



July 16 - Rejects opposition claims the state's new logo depicts a lotus flower and
not NSW's floral emblem the waratah.



Aug 7 - Admits he knows there are Labor MPs plotting against him and he knows who they
are. Della Bosca again denies there are plans to dump Rees.



Aug 27 - Planning Minister Kristina Keneally forced to deny she's been approached to
replace Rees.



AAP nr/evt/ht/jlw

KEYWORD: REES ANNIVERSARY TIMELINE

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