Federal govt ministers downplay NSW result

AAP-March,27-Senior Gillard government ministers are playing down the impact on federal politics of Labor's crushing defeat in the NSW state election.
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is keen to use the coalition's landslide win as a big message to federal Labor about cost-of-living pressures and its planned carbon tax.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, whose federal seat encompasses parts of western Sydney that turned on Labor in Saturday's poll, says the result is catastrophic for the state party.
However, he insisted the election was fought on state issues.
"This is an expected, but nonetheless historical and catastrophic defeat," Mr Bowen told Network Ten on Sunday.
State and federal connections should not be over analysed, he said, adding the carbon tax played no role in the NSW election outcome.
"The Liberals trying to claim this as something (else), is frankly ridiculous."
Mr Abbott was "airbrushed" out of the Liberals state campaign because "he was regarded as an embarrassment", Mr Bowen said.
Sustainability Minister Tony Burke, who represents a safe Labor seat in inner west Sydney, said the "bad result" in NSW would not have much of an impact federally.
He cited privatisation of parts of the state's electricity sector and instability caused by having three premiers in four years as reasons for Labor's loss.
"You've got to draw a pretty long bow to say that any votes were changed over that part (carbon tax) of the campaign," he told the Nine Network.
Premier-elect Barry O'Farrell's promise to fight the Gillard government over the carbon tax was unlikely to make the policy debate harder to win, he said.
The federal government would "work constructively" with Mr O'Farrell.
Mr Abbott insisted the NSW result had big federal implications, saying it was endorsement of Liberal values and a rejection of the politics of "spin and deals".
"This was an election fought very much on cost-of-living pressures," he told Sky News, adding federal Labor was making a bad situation worse with taxes on carbon and the mining sector.
"The message that is coming loud and clear from the struggling families of NSW is that the carbon tax is toxic."
Liberal frontbencher Joe Hockey used the result in Penrith as evidence the carbon tax played a role in the NSW election.
The coalition picked up Penrith at a by-election in June 2010 on the back of a near 26 per cent swing against Labor.
"The margin in Penrith is now larger than it was at the horrific by-election result," he told ABC Television.
However, with 73 per cent of the vote counted in the western Sydney, Saturday's result is almost identical to the by-election outcome.
Mr Hockey said the biggest issue in NSW was the cost of living.
"It is cost of living one, two and three," he said, adding federal Labor was adding to the pressures with its flood levy and planned taxes on carbon and miners.
"People have had jack of it and these people aren't listening to it in Canberra."