From the bear pit

Labor barrister returns to NSW parliament ... Collier's by-election victory rescues Opposition Leader John Robertson from caucus coup ... Macquarie Street gumshoe Alex Mitchell recalls Keating's anti-Robbo spray 

Barry Collier: on the stump

Barrister Barry Collier is back in the NSW Legislative Assembly as MP for Miranda after a two-and-half-year absence.

His victory at last month's by-election enters the history books because of his record-breaking swing of 27 percent swing.

Less well known is the fact that his victory aborted plans to overthrow Labor leader John (Robbo) Robertson and replace him with Maroubra MP Michael Daley, a former solicitor and deputy mayor of Randwick.

For the time being, Robertson is safe from the coupists. However, when the Miranda elation fades - as early as March next year - Daley's supporters will restart their agitation for a change of leadership.

This week shadow education minister Carmel Tebbutt announced she won't contest the next election. It was her way of saying she wants nothing to do with more leadership bloodshed, which is as regular as shoot-outs in south-west Sydney.

The general wisdom in Labor's ruling circles is that Robertson, a dyed-in-the-wool union official with a pronounced "ocker" presence, cannot rebuild the electoral fortunes of the NSW ALP.

After more than a decade of scandals, rorts, nepotism and cronyism, who could?

"Arfar" Daley-in-waiting

Step forward Michael John Daley, 48, who succeeded ex-premier Bob Carr in the seat of Maroubra in 2005 and is now shadow treasurer. 

Educated at Marcellin College, Randwick, Daley is a product of the dominant Catholic machine centred on the Randwick Labor Club.

He began his working life as a customs officer, studied law at night and was admitted as a solicitor in 1998.

His political ambitions became obvious when he was elected to Randwick City Council in 1995, served as deputy mayor (2000-2004) and then readied himself to succeed Carr whose retirement was imminent.

He won a tightly contested pre-selection battle and entered parliament in October 2005 delivering an inaugural speech memorable for claiming that Carr was "an icon of the Labor Party and a monumental character in the political history of NSW and Australia".

He extended warm tributes to other supporters who included Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi, Frank Sartor, Kristina Keneally and Mark Arbib.

He remained on the backbench until premier Nathan Rees made him roads minister in 2008 and then promoted him in 2009 to the police and finance portfolios.

Premier Kristina Keneally kept him in those two roles until the government's shattering defeat at the March 2011 election.

After Labor's meltdown to just 20 MPs, Robertson was elected Opposition Leader unopposed. Daley cannily decided not to stand - preferring a waiting game.

While Robertson has many caucus admirers who believe he has held the ragtag show together for the past two and a half years and given it renewed focus, he has a long list of enemies among Labor has-beens, notably Paul Keating, Bob Carr, Michael Egan and Barrie Unsworth. 

They have never forgiven Robertson, a former electricians' union secretary, for leading the unions' frontal assault on Morris Iemma's bungled plan in 2008 to privatise the power industry.

The defeat of the Iemma-Michael Costa-Eric Roozendaal sell-off proposal cost the premier his job.

Memorable Keating spray

Keating: master of vituperation

After Robertson replaced Costa in the NSW Upper House in October 2008, Keating wrote him a memorably snarling letter accusing him of sabotaging the Labor government and behaving "like a banshee on a rampage".

"You tore at the government's entrails until its viability was effectively compromised ... 

Now I understand you are thinking about a transition to the Legislative Assembly from the comfort stop you are currently occupying. And that that transition, in the medium term, is about the party leadership and the premiership.

Let me tell you, if the Labor Party's stocks ever get so low as to require your services on its parliamentary leadership, it will itself, have no future.

Not a skerrick of principle or restraint have you shown. You have behaved with reckless indifference to the longevity of the current government and the reasonable prospects of its re-election.

It may be a novel concept for you, let me say that the conscientious business of governance can never be founded in a soul so blackened by opportunism.

I am ashamed to share membership of the same party with you."

Keating was right about Robertson's political career path: he moved from the Upper to the Lower House via the seat of Blacktown and then became Opposition Leader.

However, the premiership is not an option.

The knives that came out for Robertson in 2008 remain unsheathed, and although he is basking in the reflected glory of the Miranda by-election, the Ides of March are but a few months away.

Alex Mitchell is a former Sun-Herald State Political Editor and author of Come The Revolution: A Memoir. NewSouth Books 2011.