Nathan,

We've never met, but we are about the same age, and we both studied English lit at Sydney Uni at about the same time. Didn't notice you in Manning Bar, but you were probably too busy cycling a thousand kms a week. You are the first NSW Premier we've had from our generation. John Brogden could have been, but Macquarie St chewed him up and spat him out. Well, that and his own lapses, which we weren't able to forgive and for which he couldn't forgive himself.

I am under no illusions as to the size of your task. Only Liberal bumbling of Clouseau-esque proportions kept Labor in power under Iemma. And yet getting rid of Morris seemed a baffling move to us, the regular voters who chose him. No matter: what's gone is gone - and Iemma's well gone.

And so now it's you. The sound of the blades being sharpened behind you is growing louder. The veniality of some of your colleagues has become proverbial. One of your most able ministers - though a rival, so you must be feeling some sense of schadenfreude - couldn't keep his flies done up. The voters would love to hand you and your government an early retirement.

And that's not because of Macquarie St subterfuge. It's because all the things that are supposed to be working aren't - and we all know they aren't, we who pause at water coolers on a Monday morning to discuss the news of the day.

It's what we experience on the ground. Public transport, for instance - a laughing-(rather than rolling?)-stock. The hospital system - just pray you don't get sick. Fewer beds than years ago. DOCS. The poor under-funded and badly-resourced schools.

But I am not writing to add to the list of gripers. That's part of the problem, too: that NSW is notorious as a state that eats its own. It is a hard place - a place built on hard justice, a people who have never really accepted that forgiveness was an option. You get a fair go, but not a second go. I can't imagine how hard it is to rule the unruly.

No gripes from me. No: you are our leader, however that came to pass. Now - please, just govern us. Make use of whatever time remains to make a difference to our state. Show that you are not only a man of the backrooms and shadowy halls of party-politics, and step up to the mark. Get that party room in order. Restore our belief in the majesty of democratic government. We need to know it works.

Good government is a fragile and precious thing, and it needs to be protected with all we have. That it is easy to say - and who wouldn't agree? But it is not good enough that the people of NSW have become so cynical about their elected (well, kinda elected) government. We have become complacent. It was only a generation ago that corruption at the very top level was the norm in these parts; and criminals and corrupt cops stalked the streets of Sydney with impunity. Have we forgotten how justice can evaporate like the water in Warragamba? Too many of your citizens have fled from places where the idea of good government is a rumour. For their sakes alone we need you to be vigilant.

But what I want tell you most of all is that even though some of us didn't vote for your party, the Christians of your state are praying for you mate. We are praying for you in your (as we believe) divinely-appointed task of leading our state. After all, most people can see that it's a job that can't be done on human strength alone.

Sincerely yours

Michael Jensen