Plenty of eyebrows raised at the sight of Dominic Perrottet, the former NSW premier, in New York over the past week. Sources say the politician, who has also been the state’s treasurer and finance minister, took the time to catch up with senior figures at News Corporation’s HQ while in town.

Three months after losing the election, Perrottet is sitting on the backbench where his considerable talents are surely going to waste. His predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian, is an Optus executive – although she still awaits the findings of a corruption probe – while Mike Baird was National Australia Bank’s chief customer officer before running HammondCare.