However, despite his strong moral standing on the issue, Mike Baird backed down from efforts to ban the cruelty of the greyhound industry.

No one else has ever tried to address this.

Mike Baird infuriated many in the inner west over plans for major road infrastructure.

But other leaders were too afraid of such inevitable anger to even try and complete Sydney's major road linkages that will set Sydney up for long term, large scale accessibility.

Mike Baird angered many when he took on the intensely anti-social violence and corruption of the drinking industry.

But no one else has ever tried to address this social disease.

Although it was emphatically rejected, Mike Baird proposed tax reform that would provide the state with the revenue to properly fund our schools and hospitals into the 21st century, providing all citizens with access to quality healthcare and education.

Others have been too afraid of the backlash to put forward a solution to this problem.

The NSW state budget has been repaired and is now in surplus, the NSW economy has been rejuvenated going from the last to the first largest state economy in the country, jobs have been created in unprecedented numbers, frontline services boosted and an infrastructure boom in Sydney and the regions.

So, as he retires from politics I salute him.

For trying.

For succeeding in some but not all endeavours.

Leadership is not just a position, it is action. 

Love him or hate him, we have been lucky to have Mike Baird as the 44th Premier of NSW.

By Brenton Hawken