By Shane Green and Sydney
THE hardest thing for Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell during the New South Wales state election campaign has been trying to keep a lid on it. All opinion polls point to one, inevitable result: a massive victory over Labor.
A Saturday Age/Nielsen poll - the last before today's election - puts Labor's primary vote at just 22 per cent, compared with the Coalition's 50 per cent. The Greens sit at 13 per cent, independents at 9 per cent and other parties 6 per cent.
The Nielsen poll puts the Liberal-National Coalition at 64 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, and the ALP at 36 per cent - a swing of 16 per cent since the last election.
If the poll findings are reflected at the ballot box, Labor will record its worst result in NSW in 107 years, and its current 50 seats could be reduced to as few as 15 in a 93-seat chamber.
Having tried to play down expectations of an electoral rout, it was only on the eve of the poll that Mr O'Farrell finally let the lid off.
Negotiating the centre aisle of his campaign bus as it nosed through Sydney's clogged city streets, Mr O'Farrell opened the airtight container that held a macadamia slice made by his wife, Rosemary. With jacket off and sleeves rolled up, he looked relaxed, and so he should be. If the landslide is as big as predicted, Mr O'Farrell will only have to wait until just after 7pm to confirm he is NSW premier-elect.
The bus was heading to Penrith in Sydney's outer west, a seat that is symbolic in revival of conservative politics in the state. In June last year, when miracles were still expected of recently installed Labor Premier Kristina Keneally, the Liberals took the seat in a byelection with a stunning 25.7 per cent swing.
The byelection was the result of yet another Labor scandal, the resignation of Labor MP Karyn Paluzzano after lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
It was here that Mr O'Farrell launched the Liberal-National Coalition campaign on February 20, and it was to Penrith he returned yesterday for his final pitch to voters.
After 16 years in the wilderness of opposition, the inevitable question has been the Coalition's ability to govern. Are they ready?
''The team is ready, I'm ready,'' Mr O'Farrell said. ''We're busting to have a go.'' Ms Keneally, elected to the Labor leadership at the end of 2009, has virtually run a one-woman campaign, and has been praised for her performance. But much of her campaigning efforts have been directed at shoring up what are usually regarded as safe Labor seats.
On the final day of the campaign, Ms Keneally was campaigning in the normally safe seats of the Illawarra, surrounding Wollongong, and southern Sydney suburban Labor seats including Rockdale on 10.3 per cent and Oatley at 14.4 per cent.
Ms Keneally yesterday said an O'Farrell government would not have a mandate because it had not revealed its policies. Mr O'Farrell flagged that NSW would push for a bigger share of federal funds, arguing the nation's largest state had been short-changed. Other states should ''watch out'', he said.