Matt Kean’s attacks reveal his Liberal faction’s not-so-moderate agenda

The NSW Treasurer and his moderate faction have tried to blow up Katherine Deves’ candidacy, but revealed themselves as being far to the left of even Labor, writes James Morrow.

Believe it or not, the weirdest thing about the 2022 election is not NSW Treasurer Matt Kean trying to blow up a federal candidate over the issue of transgender athletes.

No, it is actually that this very same senior officeholder in a Liberal government has managed to out himself not only as a saboteur but as someone who is, on this question at least, well to the left of Prime Minster Scott Morrison, two former PMs, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, Australia’s most decorated Olympian, and even the Labor opposition leaders in Canberra and Macquarie Street.

If there is an upside to his bizarre behaviour, it is that voters now get to see out in the open what has been long talked about in Liberal circles.

Namely, that a group of so-called moderates has – to hear conservatives tell it – worked to gut the Liberal party, marginalise the traditional values of its founders, and make it a party for posh inner-city elites who would join the Greens tomorrow if they could stand the smell.

That Katherine Deves, a lawyer and mother who has led a campaign to save women’s sport from transgender activists who would force women and girls to share change rooms and playing fields with biological males, might contest Warringah naturally offends their every instinct.

Warringah candidate Katherine Deves having a dress dropped off at her Manlyvale home, Sydney. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

So put off have they been by her candidacy that moderates including Mr Kean have taken to white-anting her every chance they get.

Dredging up old social media posts – some absolutely intemperate – they argue that Ms Deves should be taken off the ticket, disendorsed, cancelled, and un-personed.

NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean. Picture: Jeremy Piper

None of this is done in particularly good faith, of course.

As 2GB’s Ben Fordham noted when he called Mr Kean on it in a 20 minute demolition on Wednesday, the Treasurer has been happy to suggest Ms Deves was talking about a large percentage of transgender people being sex offenders when in fact she was clearly referring to a study of the British prison population.

And as the recent well-publicised case of swimmer Lia Thomas, the biological male who took the top trophy competing as a female in America’s number one competition for university athletes shows, what Ms Deves is talking about is no theoretical bogeyman dreamt up to oppress trans people.

That female athletes should not have to compete with biological males with all their physical advantages would seem like a no-brainer, not the sort of thing that should get one branded as a bigot.

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas celebrates taking first place in the 500 yard freestyle during the Women's Ivy League Swimming & Diving Championships. Picture: Joseph Prezioso

While some have suggested the prime minister selected Ms Deves to create a culture war issue, it is in fact the left of his party that has long been manning – if that word is still allowed – the barricades.

Conservatives believe Kean and others in the NSW government are trying to blow up Scott Morrison’s re-election to improve their fortunes at next year’s state election.

These conservatives also point out that it is ironic for Mr Kean to hold himself up as the voice of decency against Ms Deves’ social media past when he was not that long ago involved in a lurid sexting scandal of his own.

That there will be a reckoning within the party after May 21 hardly needs stating.

Meanwhile ordinary Australians seem thrilled that the prime minister is finally fighting on the culture front, even if some also wonder what took him so long.

Mr Morrison’s comments Wednesday that Australians are “fed up with walking on eggshells” perfectly crystallised how millions of voters who wonder how they got to a place where standing up for simple biology might get them into trouble.

And again, the fact that Labor has not attacked Ms Deves for her fundamental point, but only her language, suggests their polling is also showing she is on a winning issue.

Katherine Deves, Liberal candidate in the federal electorate of Warringah, and co-founder of Save Women's Sport. Picture: Supplied

State opposition leader Chris Minns, easily the sharpest Labor leader anywhere in the country, has been careful to attack Deves’ more intemperate posts without fundamentally disagreeing with her point about women’s sport.

Federally, too, Labor is being very careful how it plays this.

They are happy to exploit the division within the Liberals and beat up the outrage around some of Ms Deves’ less considered statements.

But they also know that the idea of men identifying as women and having access to sports teams, change rooms, and other female-only spaces is a non-starter with much of middle Australia.

Star Australian swimmer quadruple gold medallist Emma McKeon. Picture: Brendon Thorne

Others quizzed on the issue include independent Warringah candidate Zali Steggall. Picture: Supplied

Anthony Albanese, who has long had to fight off a left flank of loopy Greens in his own electorate, was very clear this week: “Girls should be able to play sport against girls and boys should be able to play sport against boys”.

Even Zali Steggall, the independent who took Warringah off Tony Abbott, has minded her words very carefully and not allowed herself to be drawn on whether she would have been happy to compete against transgender athletes when she won bronze at the 1998 Olympics.

Speaking of Olympians, Emma McKeon, who took home 11 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Games, said Wednesday that it was “just not fair” to expect women to compete against biologically male opponents.

That actually seems like a pretty moderate thing to say.

But in NSW Liberal circles, that word seems to have lost all meaning.