[citation needed] In 1983, Costa joined the NSW Railways and started work as a trainee engineman, but never progressed to a driver, and became active in the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen (AFULE).

[citation needed] At the time the AFULE had a militant leadership who began a series of strikes over differences with the Australian Railways Union, whereby brake vans were removed from goods trains, and the guards were given locomotive jobs.

"[8] When the Treasurer Michael Egan resigned unexpectedly in January 2005, the then Premier, Bob Carr, took the opportunity for a major reshuffle.

Costa was subsequently shifted sideways to Roads and the minor portfolios of Ports and Economic Reform and replaced in Transport by John Watkins.

Soon afterwards, amid mounting leadership speculation, Morris Iemma dumped Costa as Treasurer,[12][13] but then resigned as Premier after losing the support of the dominant right faction, and was replaced by Nathan Rees.

The Sydney Morning Herald described him this way:Costa has been described as the "State Government's leading climate change sceptic" mainly because of his views supporting increasing capacity of smelters and power stations.

[16] In June 2007, during question time in the New South Wales Legislative Council, Costa launched into a tirade against the theory of global warming and told caucus it should adopt a proposal that would allow big power users such as aluminium smelters to avoid the costs of meeting the Government's renewable energy targets to "save jobs in Newcastle and Wollongong".

[20] Another column claimed that "Rudd has a highly developed ability to ignore inconvenient views he has recently held when they conflict with his immediate political requirements".

[24] In mid-2009, Costa stopped writing regular columns, but returned a year later, after the revelation in Betrayal, a book by Daily Telegraph journalist Simon Benson, that Rudd had reneged on a promise he made to Iemma to publicly support the electricity privatisation.

In that article, Costa argued that Labor's problems were due to the rise of individuals who valued winning elections at all costs, and had scant regard for sound policy.

Michael Costa currently resides in Wollombi in the Hunter Valley in rural New South Wales with his wife Deborah, a primary school teacher, with their two young children, Valentina and Mikos.

[28][29] On 14 April 2011, an armed man broke into Costa's home, threatening his wife with a knife before tying her up and fleeing with their car.