A year and a half later he hasn’t even made the Top 40.

So glacial has his pace been in turning the state around that today’s Galaxy poll shows almost four out of 10 people don’t even know who the premier is.

This is a sad indictment.

By contrast there has been much outrage about the intensity and pace of Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s reform program but at least people know his name.

It is impossible not to compare and contrast O’Farrell and Newman, who were both swept to power in landslide majorities after years of Labor neglect. Both had a mountainous task before them. O’Farrell went for a softly softly approach, Newman went for it like a bull at a gate.

Newman’s critics point out that the sudden fall in his popularity proved he had made the wrong call. In fact it proves he made the right one.

It was no less a figure than the godfather of political strategy Machiavelli himself who said that a newly installed leader should get all the unpopular and unpleasant tasks out of the way immediately upon ascension. Then, afterwards, he could rule benevolently and that would be what people would remember him for. In other words it is better to have a short sharp shock that leads to an age of prosperity than a prolonged period of compromise and half-measures. For Machiavelli this meant killing all one’s rivals, but all O’Farrell has to do is sell NSW’s electricity assets and put the money into transport infrastructure.

Political capital is there to be spent, and Barry O’Farrell currently has a small fortune. But with every day that passes more and more of it disappears down the drain.

Values teacher is lost

IT is impossible to know all the things that make a society strong, successful and cohesive. Indeed, in recent days we have seen just how fragile our social fabric can be.

One critical ingredient is the rule of law. Another our system of government. But laws and governments can only function where there is a community and individuals within that community who have the right values. Society functions because most of us have a moral code that sustains us and the discipline to adhere to it.

And so it is a great shame that one of the key institutions in promoting morality and discipline, the high school cadet program, is to be stripped back as the government tries to cut costs.

No doubt budget beancounters think they are slashing a quaint old ritual that nobody will notice. In fact they are taking away a rich historical institution that is today a source of self-esteem, camaraderie and fun. Not only that it is also one of the few places left where old-fashioned values such as loyalty, selflessness and valour are still imbued in our kids.

Surely we need more of that these days, not less.