Don’t be fooled by the confected anger expressed publicly by conservative state premiers in the wake of the Abbott government’s first budget.
It’s a fail-proof strategy. Having lived in Victoria through most of the Bolte-Hamer years, when that state was believed to be the ‘jewel in the Liberal crown’, Sir Henry Bolte lost no votes campaigning against his federal colleagues when he felt it was in his state’s interests to do so.
He and his Liberal Party successors, Rupert Hamer and Lindsay Thompson, remained in power for a decade longer than their federal counterparts Menzies, Holt, Gorton and the hapless Billy McMahon.
Mike Baird’s cry of ‘a kick in the guts’ follows a well-worn pattern. He and his state counterparts have learned the lesson well.
Trevor Robertson, Upper Crystal Creek
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
