James O’Doherty: Whole Coalition team needed to sell Premier’s big ideas

Big ideas make you a big target, so if you’re going to take a truly reformist policy to an election, you’d better hope your team is across the detail, writes James O’Doherty.

The problem with big ideas, for a politician, is that they instantly make you a large target. So if you are going to take a truly reformist policy to an election, you better hope your team is across the detail.

Treasurer Matt Kean’s poor attempts at explaining the government’s signature election commitment — government-run superannuation-style bank accounts for kids — was a textbook display of how a big-target strategy can come unstuck.

Premier Dominic Perrottet’s right-hand-man was unable to explain key elements of the ambitious policy.

The Treasurer, who was brought into discussions months ago (along with Deputy Premier Paul Toole and Minister Victor Dominello), effectively hung Perrottet out to dry when asked simple questions about whether children born outside NSW would be eligible.

“Those details are available but my understanding is that people living in NSW are eligible,” Kean said, after asking the journalist to repeat the question three times.

Pressed further, he said: “The Premier will answer those questions. Again, this is about ensuring that we ensure that our kids have financial security so that they get the best start in life.”

In other words: “I have no idea”.

Treasurer Matt Kean couldn’t answer questions on the Coalition’s Future Fund policy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

In Kean’s defence, Perrottet had struggled on the same issue a day earlier. It created a short-lived storm in which it appeared border residents could be left out if they crossed state lines to have their babies, before the Premier’s office moved to hose down those concerns.

Kean’s shocker of a performance caused collective groans within government ranks by giving weight to Labor criticism of the policy — criticism which has been weak at best.

Labor leader Chris Minns has opposed the “NSW Kids Future Fund” on the basis that families need help now — not in eight years (at the earliest). But by his own admission, Minns’ major plan to cut power prices — a $1 billion state-owned renewable energy corporation — will take seven years to bring down power bills.

After weeks of opposing a Coalition plan to provide every energy customer $250 off their bills (if they compare their plans on the Service NSW website), Minns announced a similar rebate for low income earners and small business.

A cynic could say this was done as an acknowledgment his original plan wasn’t going to cut it.

Premier Dominic Perrottet has big ideas.

Minns also argues the Perrottet Future Fund policy, which will cost $850 million over four years and more than half a billion dollars in 2041 alone, is a bad use of cash.

He has argued that all available funds should be used bolstering the education system.

The kids future fund is not without its critics. Even some in the Coalition think it is a bad idea.

But it is the “out of the box” thinking that Perrottet wants to be known for.

As I wrote after the announcement, it epitomises the “go big or go home” strategy the Premier is taking to the election.

Since taking over at the end of 2021, Perrottet has moved to reform stamp duty, announced that he would turn every poker machine in NSW cashless, and baked in a universal year of free preschool for four-year-olds.

With his superannuation scheme for children, that makes four truly “big” ideas.

The kids future fund is aimed squarely at aspirational voters.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, Perrottet said the fund, which could be spent on buying a house or getting an education, was about harnessing “ambition”.

These are the people Perrottet needs to win over in growing areas like Riverstone and Leppington if he has any hope of holding on to government.

The contrast with his opponent could not be starker.

Despite Labor sources telling this column last year that Minns would be “bold”, the Labor leader has done everything he can to present a small-target strategy.

He is promising “safe change”, trying his best not to propose anything radical, and relying on voters believing that the current mob has had long enough.

But the risk of Labor’s small-target strategy is that Minns may not end up doing enough to convince voters why they need a change.

Minns was also caught out on one of his main campaign pledges this week, when he was unable to guarantee public sector workers would be paid more if he gets elected and scraps the wages cap.

State Labor’s small-target strategy is almost identical to the one that propelled Anthony Albanese to government at the federal poll. He, like Minns, learned the hard way that going big could actually mean you do go home.

In 2019, Bill Shorten’s “100 positive policies” quickly became an anchor weighing down the then-Labor leader’s campaign effort — largely due to Shorten’s failure to explain key questions about his agenda.

If Perrottet wants to avoid the same mistake, he needs everyone in his team to be across the details.

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