Cabinet ministers not impressed with Gladys Berejiklian’s ‘micromanaging’ approach

EXCLUSIVE: Cabinet ministers have been left wondering when they will have time to run their portfolios in the face of Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s micromanaging.

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EXCLUSIVE
PREMIER Gladys Berejiklian has been accused of “micromanaging” after she asked cabinet ministers to ensure they respond to all correspondence within three weeks and issued a directive to her staff that she must see all correspondence that leaves her office.

Ms Berejiklian yesterday confirmed her rigid approach to all correspondence — whether by letter or email — after suggestions to The Daily Telegraph that she ordered the response to a Year 11 student’s letter to be redrafted three times by a staff member who later quit her office.

Ms Berejiklian also recently told her cabinet that all ministers should write back to any correspondent within three weeks.

Ministers have expressed frustration at Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s micromanaging ways, lamenting they didn’t get into politics to write letters. Picture: AAP

One minister said yesterday: “That’s not what we got into government for — to write letters.”

Ministers were said after the Premier’s remarks to wonder when they were going to have time to run their portfolios.

In one instance, according to reliable sources, Ms Berejiklian’s health, justice and local government adviser Corin Moffatt was asked three times to redraft a letter she had written responding to a Year 11 student.

Ms Moffatt left Ms Berejiklian’s office this month.

The Premier denied this occurred with a student’s letter yesterday, with a spokesman saying: “Your information is entirely wrong.

“That said, the Premier has emphasised to her office and colleagues of the importance of responding with care to people who take time to write to the government.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier of New South Wales Gladys Berejiklian at Richmond RAAf base yesterday. Ms Berejiklian has become renowned as a tireless worker but a micromanager.

Yesterday, Ms Moffatt said that she could not recall the particular letter but said Ms Berejiklian did have “an attention to detail”.

“Sometimes you’ll do a lot of [drafts] to fix a mistake,” Ms Moffatt said. “You do heaps of letters.”

She said Ms Berejiklian was “great” and the constant letter redrafting was not the reason for her departure.

Ms Moffatt, who worked on the government’s local government amalgamations strategy, was a former director at the Office of Local Government before working for Local Government Minister Paul Toole, then former premier Mike Baird and Ms Berejiklian.

She is understood to have been the staffer who worked on local government reforms for the government.

Ministers yesterday told The Daily Telegraph they were wondering how to get the rest of their work done when correspondence seemed such a priority. One source said: “Gladys is micromanaging everything. She has to see every piece of correspondence.”

The Premier’s spokesman confirmed: “The directive the Premier gave [to her office] was whatever goes out in her name, she has to see.”

Ms Berejiklian has also become renowned inside government for working very hard, virtually refusing to take a day off since she succeeded Mike Baird in January.