For NSW voters divorcing Labor will be the easy part

Sydney with a population of five million, a beautiful harbour, Opera House and international airport only minutes from the city is, or should be, the gateway to Australia. But it has a reputation for being unsafe after dark with what amounts to no go zones extending into the CBD and a public transport system that is shoddy and unreliable.

O'Farrell has promised to build a new multi-million dollar convention centre at Darling Harbour. But this alone won't attract major events. Kennett quickly worked this out and stole the Grand Prix from Adelaide setting it up in Albert Park in the heart of Melbourne. This took a lot of guts and met with fierce opposition but it worked and helped reverse a tourist drain.

And if he wants to be taken seriously O'Farrell, once premier, is going to have to confront the Sydney City Council which has wasted millions of ratepayers' dollars turning its streets into bicycle priority paths not only at the expense of motor vehicles but also pedestrians.

Significantly, with Labor's popularity continuing to dive in the public opinion polls O'Farrell found it necessary to engage in some last minute gimmickry by signing a " contract" with the people of NSW to deliver all his election promises. " If we don't perform they can hold us to account at the next election," he declared stating the obvious.

Liberal strategists have been at pains to play down suggestions that the Coalition will end up with too much power and a blank cheque from the voters. And in brief TV advertisement focussed on the unholy mess caused by the Keneally Government's bargain basement sale of the State's power assets and the added burden which this will place on household running costs O'Farrell declared that he would act immediately to " fix Labor's mess."

The speed with which he can implement his agenda will depend on the balance of power in the Upper House Legislative Council. But this has been a challenge which many political leaders have had to face up to and the size of O'Farrell's win in the Legislative Assembly together with the public mood for reform will arm him with convincing weapons in this fight.

Meanwhile as the conservatives are gearing themselves to tackle the issue of being perceived to have too much power (and don't forget politics is more about perception than reality) Labor is having to come to grips with the real prospect of having little or no parliamentary power.

Faced with a similar fate after electoral hidings in the 1975 and 1977 federal elections militant unions suggested it may be time for the industrial wing of the Labor movement to effectively become the de facto opposition.

If former Trades Hall boss John Robertson succeeds in moving from the Upper House to the Legislative Assembly by winning the traditionally safe ALP western Sydney suburban seat of Blacktown, which is looking increasingly tenuous on the latest polling , this sort of scenario could, in effect, become a reality should he replace Keneally as party leader.

Whatever the case, the task for Labor after next weekend is to start rebuilding its credibility with the electorate. In what has traditionally been a Labor governed state this may not be as difficult as it may seem particularly as most of those who are associated with the party's mismanagement of the state have moved, or been moved, on.