‘CrapCo’: Nats leader John Barilaro blows up at Liberals
It was set up to track Coalition election commitments, but one senior minister believes the premier’s special “delivery” committee has forgotten about the bush. Nationals leader John Barilaro had a meltdown at the meeting, calling it ‘crap’ before storming out.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
If the bush had any doubts about Nationals leader John Barilaro not fighting for their interests within Government, they can be put to rest.
The Sauce can reveal the Deputy Premier had an spectacular, old-school meltdown at some of his Liberal colleagues when they met as part of Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s special “delivery and performance committee” on Thursday night, with the Monaro MP storming out of a meeting “in tears”.
The committee, dubbed DAPCo, was formed to track the Coalition’s election commitments with its membership comprising Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Customer Services Minister Victor Dominello and the premier herself.
According to Macquarie Street operatives, Barra’s blow-up was triggered by his frustration at regional commitments being “kicked down the line” in favour of more metro-focused projects with the same amount of money not flowing to education and health projects in the bush.
After giving the committee a piece of his mind, he kindly suggested ministers should stop calling itself “DAPCo”.
“It should be called CrapCo,” Barilaro yelled, before marching out of the room.
MORE NEWS:
Royal commission told: We need more paid firefighters
Possum v wallaby: Hidden camera shows skirmish over food
We are reliably informed Barra made his way to a pub with some of his staff after the meeting where he remained fired up for several hours.
“The adrenaline was coursing through his veins,” one source said.
KEAN’S NEW TESLA
It takes three hours to charge and has been described as lacking grunt, but NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean says his new government-leased Tesla even his “petrolhead” driver convinced.
Kean, who has been copping flak from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party this week for wanting to to turn one-third of the government fleet electric (they question the lack of cheap electricity to power them once coal-fired power stations are decommissioned), ordered the Model 3 electric vehicle back in November as a replacement for a Kluger.
The car arrived in March, with Kean and his assigned driver giving it a thorough workout around town.
Kean reckons the claim Teslas lack grunt is unfounded.
“They can go from zero to 100km/h in four seconds,” before adding: “That’s according to the brochure.”
As for his self-confessed “petrol head” driver “Dave”? “It’s grown on me,” he said.
The Sauce inquired about the new wheels after being told Kean’s driver was only using it to drive his boss between his home in Hornsby and Parliament House, with the journey to his own home on the Central Coast being undertaken in his 4WD.
The allegation was refuted by both Kean and Dave, who said the Tesla was regularly driven to the Coast with the car able to make the 180km/h round-trip with ease.
As it was a ministerial car, Kean’s driver took his own vehicle home when he had other personal trips to make.
“It has absolutely no problem doing the round trip,” Kean said.
“When we get to parliament, we just plug it in to the charger.
“When fully charged, it can do around 340km/h.”
As for charging stations, Dave said there were enough around to avoid being stranded.
But Kean, whose Net Zero environment policy will see no carbon emissions in NSW by 2050, nominated the biggest plus as cost with the savings from not having to use fuel estimated to be around $120 per week.
And Kean is not the only convert – The Sauce understands there are others wanting to join him in the electric car revolution with NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman having made inquiries along with up to two other NSW MPs.
Shooters MP Rob Borsak, who drives a “black, 5L, V8 Mustang” confirmed he was not one of them.
“My car is very environmentally friendly because the price of petrol is lot of cheaper than electricity,” he said.
“So no, I’ll be keeping mine.”
HARD LOBBYING
The campaign to re-open brothels appears to be gaining “traction” with The Sauce told one minister was this week complaining to his colleagues of being “lobbied hard” by the industry.
In hoping to convince his colleagues of moving ahead with a reopening date, the minister suggested the activities usually conducted on such premises were “undoubtedly” still occurring “but in an unregulated environment”.
As revealed in The Sunday Telegraph, brothels are offering to literally open their windows, force clients to use the COVIDSafe app, and ban group sex in order to get back to work.
Seventeen Sydney brothel owners have joined together calling on the state government to lift the “unconscionable” COVID-19 bonk ban which they claim is crippling the industry.
* GOT SOME SAUCE? Contact linda.silmalis@news.com.au or annika.smethurst@news.com.au
Originally published as ‘CrapCo’: Nats leader John Barilaro blows up at Liberals
‘Out of control’: Teen allegedly attacked with axe, kidnapped
A Northern Rivers woman stands accused of kidnapping a teenage girl and robbing her before she escaped from a car in an alleged wild episode on a busy roadway.
Mayor’s political rival to join ranks of southwest Sydney council
A controversial former councillor who distributed a fake Islamophobic flyer about his rival’s wife and MP will return to a southwest Sydney council after scoring a win at the ballot box.