O’Farrell won’t do a Debnam. So far, everything in the NSW electricity privatisation debate has gone swimmingly for the Opposition Leader. Labor split down the middle over the plan and then Iemma was forced to the bargaining table with O’Farrell and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner. On May 8, O’Farrell and Stoner set down five clear criteria for supporting the privatisation. All five have been met. End of story? You’d think so, but there are machiavellians in the party who can see angles invisible to the rest of us. — Imre Salusinszky, The Australian

Poor voters of NSW. So O’Farrell is joining with the NSW unions and those members of the Labor Party who oppose the privatisation. There’s nothing really wrong with this if he happens to be against privatisation, but he isn’t. So sure, it will force Iemma to back down, but won’t it just leave O’Farrell looking like a craven opportunist voting against his own desired outcome in the name of some short-term political gain? — Tim Dunlop, Blogocracy

Power sale off. Andrew Norton said it in a recent blogpost on recent Victorian Liberals’ attempts to oppose voucherisation of TAFE – what’s the point of a Liberal Party that does not believe in markets? — Catallaxy

Power without purpose: Selling off NSW’s future. One of the reasons the business lobby is so keen on destroying public ownership is that they want to make sure it is households and not industry and commerce that bear the lion’s share of inevitable price rises. — Michael Osborne, Newcastle Greens