WE are nearly halfway into the first term of the O'Farrell state government. And it's not all going swimmingly.
We have a Premier who seems to struggle to make a decision without a review, a Treasurer who stumbled in adequately explaining how the government lost $1 billion in the budget result, a Transport Minister who keeps announcing big plans without any money to fund them and an Education Minister who says he can "sleep at night" despite making $1.7 billion in education cuts.
Oh, and we have an Attorney-General who wants to soften bail and sentencing laws while drive-by shootings occur.
But none of this matters thanks to Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald and the ICAC.
It is rare to see a government which can act under less stress about daily headlines than this mob. Labor has done the hard work for them. And continues to.
Last week a cab driver and regular Telegraph reader summed it up to me thus: "They don't have to do anything because we had 16 years of Labor."
The bar then is pretty low for O'Farrell. All he has to do is keep his government clean and he will canter away in another landslide. That hasn't always proven easy - he's had his share of scandals - but they pale when compared to Labor's misdeeds, both alleged and proven. In 7 1/2 years of knowing O'Farrell, I can honestly say I cannot recall him espousing a vision for the state; ever mentioning a great idea he wanted to put forward.
Ever saying: I need to win office because it is so important for the state we do this or that.
Maybe he's just being poker-faced. But I struggle to identify the man's core beliefs.
This should be no surprise by the way. I wrote on election day: "The pressure internally on O'Farrell will come from his deputy premier Andrew Stoner, his treasurer Mike Baird, his transport minister Gladys Berejiklian and likely finance minister Greg Pearce, who will be on the new premier's back to reform the state."
Think about what the Premier has advanced: A West Connex (Infrastructure NSW and The Daily Telegraph's campaign), a second casino (an idea from James Packer), asset sales to pay for infrastructure (recommendations of an audit and the Tamberlin inquiry). He did put forward the North West Rail Link but even that has been changed to an "all change at Chatswood" service.
The Premier is a man who knows how to read the nimbyism of sections of the electorate perfectly. Educated by his old job of Liberal Party state director, he knows how to make decisions based on compromise so as not to lose too many votes.
He's the focus group consultant's dream. It's got me thinking of that quote from George Megalogenis: "Today, a politician is more likely to begin a chat with the question: 'How do you think we are going?' Hawke, Keating and Howard Mark I would always start by telling you where they were going."
Even though I have been harshly critical of Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian, at least she's having a crack at reform. Likewise Treasurer Mike Baird. But they are also often saved by Barry O'Farrell, because he is so much more politically experienced than them and can rescue them when they stumble.
The Premier lives for politics, but not policy. This has also translated to his office where he surrounds himself with young political apparatchiks instead of great policy brains. They are almost miniature Barrys - competent, not spectacular. This contrasts with where the Premier by and large appears to have been quite good with his appointments - the public service.
But where the Premier stars is in the parliament. O'Farrell takes questions like he is swatting away flies. He is so impressive in his debating ability that he makes the opposition look idiotic. He can convince you that black is white so emphatically that you wonder why you ever doubted him.
His performance has a rhythm which can only be borne from years and years of parliamentary debate, with the points made at exactly the right times. Perhaps that is why O'Farrell chooses to remain in his office in parliament rather than move with his staff into Governor Macquarie's Tower. Perhaps that is why he is most comfortable in oppositionist mode when attacking Labor.
But O'Farrell and his team would be wise not to become complacent. Earlier this month when the ICAC was really blowing up, Labor's general secretary Sam Dastyari got a call from the Defence Minister Stephen Smith, who knew all about scandal-ridden governments from his time as WA Labor secretary. Smith wanted Dastyari to keep his chin up and know there was a way back.
The WA example is a good one. Richard Court won office in 1993 in the wake of the WA Inc scandal which led to the jailing of premier Brian Burke and deputy David Parker, but still lost office in eight years to Geoff Gallop.
To run for office on an anti-corruption platform places higher standards on a new government. And policy issues and fixing people's problems eventually trumps the role allegations of corruption play in voters' minds.
There is talk around that some in the government have not learnt a great deal from the Grimshaw Star casino scandal, in which a rogue staffer went on a mission against his former employer using a taxpayer-funded position.
There seems to be a blind spot in this government encouraged by the attitude of the Premier: It's never their fault, it's the media's fault or an opponent's fault. And they believe they can never be at fault anyway, because no matter what they do they could never match the ill deeds of Labor.
They would do well to lose the blind spot. As I travelled along with that cabbie, we got stuck in yet another one of Sydney's well-known traffic jams. "I guess the state's fixed," he quipped.
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