To sack or save: Dominic Perrottet under fire over treatment of Eleni Petinos compared to Stuart Ayres
Multiple NSW government MPs have told of unrest within the ranks as Premier Dominic Perrottet faces accusations of hypocrisy related to his sacking of Eleni Petinos.
NSW
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Dominic Perrottet has been accused of double standards as party rumblings over the sudden sacking of Miranda MP Eleni Petinos – compared to the Premier’s steadfast backing of Stuart Ayres – threaten to tear a new rift in the state government.
It comes as Treasurer Matt Kean blamed “fat thumbs” for accidentally sharing a message on his social media accounts which slammed the NSW government for its “swift decisive action against a woman” compared to a man.
Multiple government MPs told The Telegraph of unrest among the Coalition over the sudden dumping of Ms Petinos amid bullying allegations from staff, which she denies, opposed to the continued support of Mr Ayres in light of the John Barilaro US trade post saga.
“There seems to be one standard for one minister and another standard for the other,” a source said.
Another Coalition MP believed Ms Petinos was the victim of the Premier’s delay in addressing the trade commissioner scandal.
They said if the government was not already in crisis over former deputy Mr Barilaro’s appointment to a plum New York trade role, Ms Petinos could have been stood aside while a review was conducted.
“When you’re in a position of strength you’ll stand by your people for longer,” they told The Telegraph.
Another said the optics of another woman leaving cabinet were bad for the Liberals, who now have just three female ministers.
“It’s just feeding the narrative from the federal election that conservatives don’t support women,” one said.
The comments come on the same day Mr Kean made an awkward apology after retweeting a tweet on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
“The perception among women: something very rotten in NSW govt. (sic) Swift decisive action against a woman accused over the ‘possibility’ of unsafe workplace practices, & yet … the Barilaro/Ayres situation? Double standards,” the message shared by Mr Kean read.
It was hastily deleted by Mr Kean, who later offered the disclaimer he “discovered my account here did some unauthorised retweeting earlier”.
“There’s now an official ban on fat thumbs in my office, and I’m calling on Twitter to move the ‘retweet’ button safely to the top corner, out of harm’s way!” he wrote.
Mr Perrottet on Monday denied there were parallels between Ms Petinos’ situation and that of Mr Ayres’, who continues to dig in ahead of an independent report into the appointment of Mr Barilaro to the New York trade commissioner role.
“One (situation) goes to behaviour and a safe workplace … I made the judgment call that Ms Petinos needed to stand down,” Mr Perrottet said.
Penny Sharpe, leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, said: “The situation we are in speaks for itself.
“Eleni Petinos was sacked within days of misconduct allegations being made against her, yet Stuart Ayres has managed to hang around like a bad smell for weeks.”
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