NSW election 2023: Why Gladys Berejiklian failed to endorse her successor Dominic Perrottet
The former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was conspicuously silent during the campaign with insiders claiming it reflected her view of Dominic Perrottet.
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Gladys Berejklian was maintaining a dignified silence on the Liberals disastrous attempt to hold onto government in NSW.
The retired NSW Premier’s failure to endorse her successor Dominic Perrettot during his campaign, said a government insider, “spoke volumes”, about career Liberal Berejiklian’s’s view of the man who had formerly been her party deputy.
The one-time Member for Willoughby did not once appear at the embattled Perrottet’s side during his campaign and was not photographed endorsing the man who replaced her in the Premier’s office in October 2021 following her resignation.
Tellingly she did however pose with under-fire Penrith MP Stuart Ayres and his wife Federal Senator Marise Payne a week ago when the trio had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant.
Ayres later posted the image to his Instagram account.
Government insiders said Berejiklian had a host of good reasons for not endorsing the incumbent Premier.
Chief among them was that Perrottet failed to support her during the difficult last 18 months of her premiership.
First evidence of this arrived during the early days of the Covid pandemic when Perrottet repeatedly refused to attend the 11am daily press conferences to back in her messages.
“Some ministers within the government took the incredibly misinformed view she was conducting the press conference – at which she repeatedly came under intense fire – to promote herself. The reality was she believed it had to be done and was the best way forward for the state and her constituents,” the insider said.
The insider further said many in the Berejiklian government, including Perrottet, were openly “jealous” of the Premier’s rising popularity and profile during the pandemic.
In June 2020 Perrottet was seen to break ranks with Berejiklian when he appeared on 2GB broadcaster Ben Fordham’s radio program to respond to her comments about a proposed Black Lives Matters protest.
While she was of the more moderate view “people have the right to protest within the law”, as she told The Daily Telegraph at the time, the conservative Perrottet told Fordham he “can’t forgive the unforgivable”.
It caused backlash for Berejiklian as she struggled to hold the community together under what the insider admitted were “worrying and difficult” conditions.
Eyebrows were raised more recently during the election campaign when Perrottet claimed he and Berejiklian were close at a press conference.
One insider said: “This is simply not true. They barely ever speak.”
In Perrottet’s only cabinet reshuffle, which took place in December 2021, he removed NSW gaming minister Victor Dominello, Berejiklian’s supporter and friend, from his portfolio after Dominello called for a probe into the influence of ClubsNSW on state politics.
The Premier was later forced to deny Dominello’s removal was due to pressure from the clubs lobby after Dominello campaigned for a cashless gambling card.
Ayres would furthermore end up being the fall guy for the decision to appoint Barilaro to a trade commissioner role that was later scuttled.
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