Vikki Campion: All the clues we missed about Liberal turncoat

Matt Kean may have worn the Liberal jersey, but he always seemed to play for the Labor team, writes Vikki Campion, and his new role is just the latest example.

Guess who said it, a Liberal or Labor energy minister?

Who, in 2022, promised a solar subsidy would “help thousands of families slash their energy bills by up to $600 a year”. Who accosted an opponent in parliament as “a knuckle-dragger who denies the existence of climate change”?

Who regularly claimed: “Australia is blessed with some of the best renewable resources in the world. We can be a clean energy superpower and help the rest of the world reduce our emissions and, in doing so, see our country become even more prosperous.”

Who promised in parliament in 2020 that building industrial-scale wind and solar would shrink household bills “around $130 each year and small businesses around $430 each year”?

If you guessed Labor’s Energy Minister Chris Bowen, you’d be wrong — but not by much.

All of this is documented in the official proceedings of NSW Parliament’s Hansard, scripted speeches, not off-the-cuff comments, by Matt Kean, the man Mr Bowen headhunted to lead the Climate Change Authority.

So, who believed that Matt Kean was a stalwart of Liberal Party values? Perversely enough, all his Liberal and Nationals colleagues, who followed his dictums without challenge.

Matt Kean (l to r), Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese head to a press conference to announce Ken’s new role. Picture: Martin Ollman

Kean gave them every clue, every step of the way, and not only did the Liberal Party allow it, but they elevated him into leadership — only to be shocked when he stood, shoulder to shoulder, in the Prime Minister’s courtyard with Mr Bowen, appointed to work for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s administration.

There were junior but tribal operatives who lost jobs when the Coalition lost government. They would not consider working for the political adversary.

But not Mr Kean, who was eager to replace the new $719,000-a-year Governor-General Sam Mostyn.

Mr Kean never won his seat off the Labor Party, but he did topple another moderate Liberal — who had won Hornsby back from Labor.

He wore the Liberal jersey but seemed to play for the Labor team.

Liberal MP Matt Kean giving his valedictory speech at NSW Parliament. Picture: Tim Hunter

On Thursday, I asked the Climate Change Authority if Mr Kean would be precluded from working with, for, or from taking board positions in companies that operate in the energy space since he also pointed toward working in private enterprise. And did they accept that if he takes a job with any of them, it could cloud his decision-making in the national interest?

Obviously, they didn’t respond.

In lieu of any forthcoming answer, this $65,000-a-year role makes Mr Kean irresistible to every EV and intermittent power carpetbagger lined up.

Mr Kean has not left parliament for a board job worth $65,000. This is a stair to a higher place, the position that will make him a handy little tool to any company looking to mine taxpayer subsidies.

In government, Mr Kean claimed NSW would get 9100 new jobs in industrial wind and solar by 2030. He quoted the GenCost 2018 report industrial renewables would deliver “cheaper reliable energy”.

If you want to check the validation of their virtue, did they deliver on their promises? Did your power bills plummet?

Did thousands of jobs appear in the bush? Or was it a bucket of spin?

In 2020, Mr Kean vowed he would be “the environment minister who delivers cheaper reliable energy … delivering the nation’s first renewable energy zone. That is how you drive down wholesale prices”.

Four years later, a family of five in the Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) in the Central West, a region targeted with 1024 turbines, opened an $1800 power bill, up from around $600 four years ago.

He promised that new transmission lines, such as Humelink, would bring Snowy Hydro 2.0 into the grid by 2024.

Yet despite the $7.8 billion transmission investment, where Mr Bowen and Mr Kean stood shoulder to shoulder two years ago, Humelink hasn’t even acquired the land it needs to build.

Not long ago, Mr Kean attacked the then-member for Strathfield Jodi McKay: “She is so committed to Labor values that she tried to join the Liberal Party.”

Unlike Mr Kean, who was so committed to Liberal values, he actually did end up as a Labor Party appointment.

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