THE council workers at Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, know one thing for certain: politics would be a damn sight better if a few more decent, hard-working blokes got to the top.

That one of their own, Nathan Rees, has just become Premier of NSW is cause for great delight.

“I was shocked when I saw him on television,” said Rod Irwin, 45, who worked as a park attendant with the Premier in the late 1980s.

“He hasn’t changed at all. He was exactly like he is now when he was working here in his 20s.

“Unless he’s had a brain transplant, he will be a great Premier. It is good to see someone like that in politics for once.”

The two men began life the same way, graduating from the local Northmead High School and heading straight to the council, a traditional career path for young working-class men.

Mr Irwin, who joined Parramatta Council in 1980, is five years older than Mr Rees and had already been at the council for several years when Mr Rees turned up in 1986 as a horticultural apprentice.

At one point they worked together on mowing gangs before the younger man began to focus on greenkeeping.

Mr Rees was later a union delegate and became a garbage collector at night while putting himself through university. “He was one of the most fair dinkum Aussie blokes you could come across,” Mr Irwin said. “He was one very nice fellow, a character. There was no bullshit with him.

“He got on with everybody. I haven’t got a bad word to say about him.”

Mr Irwin said he thought it was great someone who knew something about the real world had become Premier, but his success didn’t surprise anyone. “He’s one of those guys, whatever he does, he does well,” he said.

“He was always very knowledgeable about politics. He will be very good at it.”

He said Mr Rees had also performed well as a union delegate. “He was one of the rare people who did care,” he said. “He did the best he could by everybody. He was one of the better delegates. He listens to people, he actually listens. He is not in it just for the perks.”

Even council workers who had never met Mr Rees were delighted by their former colleague’s rise. Garbage collector Sean Ellis, 34, said the fact the Premier had got his hands dirty would appeal to voters.

“It is excellent to have someone who has been out there and done it all, he can relate to people,” he said. “Most of them have never had a real job.”

Since last March when he became the local member for Toongabbie, which encompasses Parramatta, Mr Rees has continued to have a close relationship with Parramatta Council. A lord mayoral minute at Monday night’s council meeting congratulated the new Premier for his achievements. He lives at nearby Wentworthville.

Credit: John Stapleton