Dominic Perrottet: ‘I’m best placed to take NSW into the future’

Even Dominic Perrottet’s rivals concede he’s had a cracking campaign, effectively a one-man show. But the Premier’s still got big plans and he wants the chance to implement them.

Dominic Perrottet is a man who believes his time has come. Conventional political wisdom — and the polls — might suggest it has come too late, but Perrottet is no conventional politician.

When we sit down together at World Square he is so brimful of ideas and policies he has already announced, they tumble out of his mouth like a waterfall of words.

Despite being pegged as an arch-conservative — and hailing from the supposed far-right of the Liberal Party — Perrottet has shocked many by championing supposedly progressive policies like universal preschool, the diversion of low-level drug offenders away from the criminal courts and into treatment, and — most famously of all — his war on poker machines.

More incredibly, despite the Liberal Party’s infamous schisms, he managed to get each of these policies unanimously endorsed by his cabinet.

Even Perrottet’s rivals concede he’s had a cracking campaign, effectively a one-man show that has thrown everything at the prospect of a surprise win on Saturday.

Premier Dominic Perrottet says he has a bold agenda with new ideas to take the state forward. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

And so the first thing I ask him is, given the tsunami of reforms he’s already undertaken, what will be left to do in a fourth term of Coalition government?

“Implement it,” he says. “It’s a bold agenda, but it’s the right agenda and with new ideas, I think, that take our state forward.”

Mr Perrottet high-fives Dakota Brisbane, 3, at a Narellan childcare centre. Picture: AAP

Perrottet is nothing if not a confident man. Long ago he told me — when the Liberals were considered a write-off — that he would find a way to win this election.

With the polls now tighter than two coats of paint, it’s hard not to suspect he might have found it.

He suspects that in these tough and uncertain economic times voters are looking to his experience as an economic manager as treasurer through the waves of disaster that have recently beset the state.

“I think it is the difficult economic times that we’re in now and families are under pressure with inflation and interest rates rising,” he says.

“And I believe I’ve got the experience, been true for five years, navigating our state through some of our darkest days through floods and fires and pandemic, that we looked at the challenges ahead.

“I believe I’m best placed to help families today, but also to look to the future.

“And ultimately, I’ve always believed that so many governments are shortsighted — they just look at the here and now and what a focus group says today. It’s not about that.”

Another surreal feature of the campaign has been how similar both Perrottet and his Labor rival Chris Minns are.

Meeting Leigh during a visit to Anglicare Parramatta. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Both are smart, decent, pragmatic, Catholic, fathers of young families, were raised in suburban Sydney and hail from the right of their respective parties.

So why isn’t Perrottet a member of the Labor Party, I ask half-jokingly. Especially given his progressive stance on key issues.

“I’ve got many friends on both sides of politics,” he says.

“And I think that’s important because there are good people that go into politics for the right reasons — and that’s to make a difference in people’s lives.

“Now, as a Liberal, I fundamentally believe in freedom and aspiration, they’re values that mean a lot to me.

“But you don’t want to look through issues with a policy lens that that’s Liberal or Labor, I’m focused on doing what works.”

Behind the counter at Pasticceria Papa. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

But despite his clear (secular) zeal for public policy making, it is equally clear that — like with Minns — the pressures of the campaign trail have taken a toll in keeping him away from his beloved kids — of whom he famously has seven, including baby Celeste.

He recounts having to drop one of his sons off at a father and son camp and then having to drive off while the other dads stayed.

“They’re not nice trips coming home,” he says, clearly emotional. “You’re asking at a difficult time. You’re asking when it’s just so intense.”

Outside the campaign, however, he makes sure all his Saturdays and most of Sunday are free to be with his family.

Obviously, this Saturday will be a little bit different, but win, lose or draw, Perrottet says he will end up working in a job that helps improve people’s lives.

Told that Minns was open to the idea of working with him should Labor win the election, he flashes a grin.

“Tell Chris he is welcome to serve as a senior minister in a Perrottet government.”

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