Howard and Keating’s ‘political love child’: Perrottet bows out of the Bear Pit

The former premier Dominic Perrottet has used his farewell speech to parliament to concede that his government should not have pursued COVID-19 vaccine mandates, arguing that people’s personal choices should not have cost them their jobs.

“Vaccines saved lives. But ultimately mandates were wrong,” Perrottet told parliament on Tuesday in his valedictory speech, marking the end of his 13 years in politics before he leaves the country for a new career in the United States.

Former premier Dominic Perrottet gives his valedictory speech in NSW parliament.Credit: John Appleyard/News Corp Australia

Perrottet’s speech, to a packed public gallery including wife Helen and six of their seven children, former prime minister Paul Keating, one-time Liberal premier Mike Baird and Labor heavyweight Graham Richardson, highlighted lessons learnt and mistakes made during his years in public life.

He said prime ministers, premiers and treasurers “may have the best intentions” but they cannot reform and develop policies for the “long-term benefit of the country” when there is a revolving door of leaders.

“So, here’s an idea that I propose. Firstly, immediately move at a federal level to four-year fixed terms. This gives them more time on reforming and less time on campaigning,” he said.

“Secondly, we need continuity at a state level, so the states and territories should move to four-year fixed terms held within six months of the midpoint of the federal electoral term.”

Former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet with his wife Helen and children at their Beecroft home. He is resigning from politics.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Ideas and imagination, the 41-year-old said, are also the “lifeblood of politics”. To make the future better, he said, “you need ideas that challenge the way things are”.

“Why do school hours have to be from 9 to 3? Why does Canberra run GPs but states run hospitals? Why does the Cahill Expressway actually exist?” he said, referencing his long-held dream of tearing down the harbourside road and turning it into an elevated walkway like New York’s high line.

He said he found it “useful throughout my career to learn from others who have gone before”.

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard was a “constant source of wisdom” while former Labor prime minister Paul Keating “encouraged me to realise the power of imagination in politics”.

“He also once said to me, ‘Dom, I had to teach my bastards to care about money. And you need to teach your bastards to care about people’,” Perrottet said.

“This may sound strange because John and Paul are so different – but I sometimes feel I’m their political love child.”

Perrottet will leave parliament this month and relocate his family of nine to Washington, DC, to take up the role of US head of corporate and external relations for resources giant BHP.

He became the youngest premier in NSW history when the then-39-year-old secured the Liberal Party leadership following the sudden October 2021 resignation of Gladys Berejiklian.

Perrottet praised Berejiklian for setting up a daily crisis cabinet meeting during the early days of the pandemic, which fostered “an environment where senior ministers could discuss and debate our response from various perspectives”.

“Whilst we didn’t always agree, and in fact often disagreed, everyone’s perspective was fairly considered and, I believe, led to NSW having one of the strongest responses not just in this country but globally,” Perrottet said.

Perrottet, who was treasurer and then premier during the pandemic, said that while he acknowledged that the Coalition government did not get everything right in that period, “we got more right than wrong”.

However, it was the decision to force workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 that was his biggest regret, and one he moved to overturn as soon as he took over as leader.

“Health officials and governments were acting with the right intentions to stop the spread. But if the impact of vaccines on transmission was limited at best, as is mostly now accepted, the law should have left more room and respect for freedom,” he said.

“If a pandemic comes again we need to get a better balance that whilst encouraging people to take action at the same time protects people’s fundamental liberty.”

Perrottet also highlighted his good relationship with former Victorian Labor premier Dan Andrews: “Dictator Dan and Domicron” as the pair were sometimes referred to during COVID-19.

“Unfortunately we don’t see this bipartisan relationship at the federal level,” Perrottet said. “Good policy is suffocated by bad politics. It’s all short-termism all the time.” He said Canberra was “becoming a cemetery of reform”.

Politics can be a race to the top, not the bottom, according to Chris Minns and Dominic Perrottet.Credit: James Brickwood

Perrottet, who won a joint leadership award with Labor Premier Chris Minns for their “civil, respectful and substance-based campaigning” during the election (some preferred to call this a bromance), wished his successor all the best.

“Make the most of every moment of this great privilege you have,” he said, adding: “I would just like to wish [Liberal leader] Mark Speakman all the very better.

“Politics is about winning the future – and you do that by having ideas. May the best ideas win.”

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