Keneally gives NSW party boss until Friday

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has given the NSW Labor Party president Bernie Riordan
until Friday to resign, clearly indicating he will be sacked by the party's
administration committee if he doesn't stand down.
Ms Keneally has described Mr Riordan's position as "untenable" after it was revealed
on Sunday that his union's magazine had pledged support for other parties at the
March election.
In an escalation in her standoff with the party boss and head of the powerful
Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Ms Keneally on Monday suggested if Mr Riordan did not
resign the decision would be made for him.
"I will reflect that the administration committee of the NSW Labor party meets on
Friday," Ms Keneally told reporters in Sydney.
"Mr Riordan right now has a period of reflection, he has the opportunity to resign
from his position. If he doesn't, admin meets on Friday."
Asked if it was now a question of "you or him", Ms Keneally said she'd be the one to
prevail.
"If that becomes the question, then it's me," she said.
In the ETU's magazine Livewire, issued to members, the union said it would not be
taking a "political approach" to the March 26 state election, which it said Labor
was "highly unlikely" to win.
It said the ETU would support individual candidates in individual seats who backed
the union's campaign for better public services in NSW.
"These candidates will include members from all political persuasions, including
Labor, Liberal, Nationals, Greens and independents."
The magazine article was not written by Mr Riordan, and the union boss has since
pledged his loyalty to the state government.
However, Ms Keneally has dismissed the excuse as unacceptable, saying "it doesn't
measure up to the leadership you'd expect of someone in that position".
Mr Riordan declined to comment to media on Monday.
Ms Keneally's tough stance with the party boss has been backed by former NSW
premiers Bob Carr and Morris Iemma - whose bids to privatise the state's electricity
assets were in part scuttled by Mr Riordan.
Mr Carr urged readers in his blog to "spare a thought for Premier Keneally, who is
entitled to express lack of confidence in Riordan".
"She doesn't deserve this. She deserves a medal for putting up with half the things
the party sends her."
Mr Iemma said the union boss had no choice but to resign as party president.
"We are not talking about some obscure party member from a far-flung branch, a
little known union secretary of a small or medium-sized union," Mr Iemma told ABC
Radio.
"We are talking about the president. He has got no other course of action to take
and that is to resign."