John Fahey Liberal/National coalition Bob Carr Labor The 1995 New South Wales state election was held on Saturday 25 March 1995.

They were joined by former National Party member Tony Windsor in Tamworth and local councillor Dr Peter Macdonald in Manly.

Most importantly, the agreement introduced fixed four-year parliamentary terms, a provision entrenched in the Constitution with 76 per cent support at a referendum called in conjunction with the 1995 election.

Having signed the agreement with the independents, the government found its position further eroded in October 1991 when Terry Metherell resigned from the Liberal Party without warning in a live television interview.

What was to follow brought an end to the political careers of Premier Nick Greiner and Environment Minister Tim Moore.

A solicitor and former footballer, Fahey’s folksy style was very different from the aloof and precise Greiner, and a significant challenge to bookish Labor leader Bob Carr.

Fahey established a strong public image, helped by his highly publicised victory leap when Sydney won the right to host the 2000 Olympics, and later when he crash-tackled an intruder who lunged at Prince Charles during a royal visit.

Blue Mountains MP Barry Morris was disendorsed when he was revealed as the source of bomb threats against a local newspaper.

Labor backed Independent John Hatton’s long called for royal commission into the police, seeing it as another opportunity to embarrass the Government.

The Liberal Party gained South Coast on the retirement of Independent John Hatton, but was unable to dislodge either Peter Macdonald in Manly or Clover Moore in Bligh.

The irony was that had the Coalition run such a campaign in 1991, the Greiner Government would probably have been re-elected with a narrow majority, and the political turmoil of the previous four years would have been avoided.