Anna Caldwell: Coalition in-fighting doesn’t help anyone — in the city or the bush

Just when it looked like NSW was the gold standard in politics, along comes a long-simmering dispute over planning and wildlife to potentially blow up the government, writes Anna Caldwell.

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Gladys Berejiklian has emerged as one of the ­nation’s strongest leaders in a period of historic challenge. But around her, she has let her government become the very cliche of a crumbling, chaotic third term rabble.

The dramatic moves by Nationals to burn the joint down should have been foreseen and avoided months ago.

Instead, on Thursday night the state was on the verge of a completely collapsed NSW government after the Premier’s moderate colleagues, who hate the Nationals Leader, cheered her on to “muscle up” to him.

The issue of koala management has revealed a deep rift in the NSW Coalition. Picture: Terry Pontikos

Simmering wounds in the ­Coalition, which are now both party-based and factional within the Liberal arm, have been ­allowed to bubble along unchecked for far too long.

The upshot was a Deputy Premier who overplayed his hand and a Premier who — for the first time — refused to fold.

Now we have the extraordinary scene of what should have been settled behind closed doors blowing up all over the front pages.

It’s the last thing NSW needs now, at a time when the state needs to ­remain focused on its “gold standard” coronavirus management, not a fight pitting Libs and Nats against each other over the rules around koalas.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian pictured with a koala at Taronga Zoo. Picture: Damian Shaw

And there is plenty of blame to go around.

The extraordinary events on Macquarie Street yesterday, which saw one of the nation’s strongest governments find itself on the brink of ­implosion, are a blight on every senior player in that cabinet room.

In the depths of a global pandemic, where NSW is truly leading the world, we are faced with a Premier and Deputy Premier calling each other’s bluff.

The only winner here is Labor.

At the heart of this dispute, the NSW Nationals believe urban Lib­erals have fundamentally disregarded the bush and, indeed, don’t understand it.

And the grievances go deeper than this flashpoint of koala policy, a bitterness spelled out colourfully by John Barilaro yesterday.

“You know, it’s this city that sends its rubbish out by train every night cause you can’t stand the smell of your own garbage,” he said.

“You want wind farms but you want it in our backyard. You want solar farms but you want it in our backyard. You’d never have them at Balmoral or … on the shores of ­Pittwater. It is this city-centric approach that believes that regional rural NSW is the biodiversity offset so that you can cover for your guilt for all the concrete, all the roads, all the buildings and all the asphalt that’s been laid.

“We’re sick to death of it.”

Deputy Premier John Barilaro meets Chardy the ten-mont- old female koala at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. Picture: Glenn Hampson

This is more than just bravado. The NSW Nationals have a seething anger towards their senior Coalition partners, and believe green-left Liberals such as Matt Kean and Rob Stokes have too much influence over policy.

While many scoffed yesterday about the absurdity of the Nationals blowing up a good government over koalas, they missed the point that the Nationals were making.

In short, they believe they are standing up for the rights of every landholder outside the city.

Indeed, the NSW Farmers Federation has repeatedly raised a raft of concerns with the Premier and Minister Stokes about the guidelines, specifically stating the framework placed “significant burdens on the farming sector”.

Here’s where Stokes and Bere­jiklian made a fundamental mistake.

To enforce a policy on the bush without having NSW Farmers in the tent comes off like D-grade politics by inward-looking city politicians.

Making matters worse, tensions outside this issue were already at ­boiling point.

A little known line-in-the-sand ­moment happened in June when NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Berejiklian teed up a private meeting with the Shooters Fishers and Farmers party in a bid to get more support in the upper house, where they rely on crossbench support.

Barilaro learnt of the meeting with his political enemies and was furious — to the Nationals, this was a ­betrayal by Libs trying to cut them out of big decisions.

Barilaro took it upon himself to show up to the meeting anyway, but the damage was done.

Liberals are fed up with Barilaro threatening to blow up the Coalition, a threat he has made more than once.

He is a willing, repeated destabil­iser. This works for the Nationals brand but it is damaging to Bere­jiklian and the coalition.

This time, he went further than ever before and his proposal that his Ministers keep their jobs (and salaries and cars) but sit on the crossbench was never going to wash.

But the damage bill here equally rests with the Liberals, who have pushed the Nationals to the brink.

These Liberals have cast the ­Nationals as anti-koala, pro-development crooks, rubbing salt in wounds that already existed.

This tactic may play in the city, but it won’t play in the bush

Equally, to those city businesses suffering the economic wrath of this pandemic, this fight will seem disconnected and out of touch. No voter gains are made in this debacle.

Berejiklian, traditionally known for her conciliatory ­approach, has long been pressured by her moderate colleagues to “muscle up” against Barilaro, just as he is pressured by the National party to “give it to” those “city libs”.

The fact that a strong government has found itself on the brink, with plenty of warning, is a blight on the lot of them and does no favours for the people of this state in the city or in the bush.