Inside Dominic Perrottet’s 17 scandal-plagued months as NSW premier
From a Nazi costume mea culpa to the actions of a deputy premier past, Dominic Perrottet’s premiership has not been without drama.
A mea culpa over a Nazi costume, a year marked by train chaos and the actions of a deputy premier past, Dominic Perrottet’s 17 months as premier has been marred in controversy.
But while the scandals have undoubtedly caused political hits on the party, few have done considerable damage to the Coalition and Mr Perrottet’s leadership.
The question remains: Is it enough to turn voter sentiment in what will be a tightly contested election?
Dom acknowledges Covid ‘regret’
Coming into the top job after the resignation of then premier Gladys Berejiklian, the former treasurer copped early criticism for hastily scrapping Covid restrictions as the state battled the Omicron outbreak.
While he’s stood by his policy decisions, which were confidently backed by the state’s vaccination levels, he admitted his “biggest regret” as premier was how he communicated the changes.
“We needed to open up our state. We needed to get kids back to school and I had the benefit of sitting in those crisis cabinet meetings every single day,” he said, speaking at Channel 9’s televised The Great Debate earlier this month.
“The lesson I learned during that period was that I had to take people on the journey, not just say, ‘Here’s where we’re going’, but actually to work with them on getting to that destination.”
Train strikes plague Perrottet
A bitter dispute with the Rail, Tram, and Bus Union led to multiple strikes and commuter chaos throughout 2022.
Confusion ensued when train officials kept station gates open, encouraging travellers to not pay for transport, with the government threatening to fine people who didn’t tap on.
The clashes related to pay and safety concerns over a Korean-built fleet of intercity trains, which the union argued was not safe to operate, with a furious Mr Perrottet threatening to terminate the multibillion-dollar enterprise agreement.
Tensions were finally quashed this year when the majority of rail workers backed a new enterprise agreement. In turn, workers were promised increased parental, bereavement and carers leave and a 2.53 per cent pay increase to May 2023, plus a 3.03 per cent increase to May 2024.
In unfortunate timing, Sydney commuters were reminded of the train debacle earlier this month when the entire rail network came to a halt due to a communication systems fault.
While trains resumed about an hour later, crowds were stuck at train stations, with delays continuing into the night.
John Barilaro causes headache
Former deputy premier John Barilaro may have voluntary resigned from state politics in October 2021, but his name has continued to bring headaches to Mr Perrottet’s government.
News of his appointment to a $500,000 New York trade commissioner role threw the government in chaos, with former senior minister Stuart Ayres resigning to the back bench over his involvement in Mr Barilaro’s hiring.
A scathing upper house inquiry finalised this year found Mr Barilaro’s appointment to have all the aspects of a “job for the boys” role even though an ICAC investigation found there was no breach of public trust.
Mr Barilaro was back in the news in February but this time over his office’s role in administering the emergency Local Economic Recovery Program after the deadly 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.
A report from the Auditor-General found that devastated Labor electorates missed out on crucial funding that predominantly went to Coalition-held seats.
At the time, Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill, whose council’s 24 grant applications were all denied, said the situation was a “disgrace”.
“Our Black Summer bushfire experience was denigrated by a state government so debased it is prepared to politicise bushfires,” he said.
Scandals hit but not maim
While Mr Perrottet hasn’t been immune from personal scandals mid-campaign trail, they largely haven’t stuck.
Most apt was the Premier‘s revelation that he wore a Nazi costume to his 21st birthday in 2003 after rumours of a photo began circulating within his own party. Bar a series of gruelling press conferences, the personal crisis never evolved into political collateral.
His apologies was accepted by community leaders, and even Opposition Leader Chris Minns was quick to reject calls for his resignation.
Ample campaign time was also devoted to the mystery of Mr Perrottet’s missing brothers Charles Perrottet and Jean-Claude Perrottet, who avoided summonses to appear at an explosive parliamentary inquiry.
Sydney businessmen Fritz Mare told the inquiry that he had been approached by Jean-Claude and Liberal powerbroker Christian Ellis and asked for $50,000 in an alleged branch-stacking attempt to unseat federal Liberal MP Alex Hawke.
Despite a taxpayer-funded, statewide search, the brothers declined to appear at the inquiry, accusing the committee of staging a “Labor-Greens circus”.
Amid the ongoing search, Mr Perrottet maintained he didn’t know his brothers’ whereabouts and hadn’t spoken to them.
In a particularly fiery press conference, the Premier repeatedly told reporters to “leave my family out of it”.
Just this week, Mr Perrottet also faced a grilling over a call he made to Health Minister Brad Hazzard while his wife, Helen, suffered a medical incident. At the time, Mr Hazzard was in a meeting with NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan, who called an ambulance to Mr Perrottet’s home.
The Premier confirmed he was not aware of this until Wednesday and rebuffed accusations paramedics were diverted from a higher priority job.
Despite the momentary media whiplash, Mr Perrottet’s condemnation of whoever leaked his family medical records echoed Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes. While Liberal leaders and union bosses don’t normally agree on things – with the union in the midst of industrial action on behalf of NSW paramedics – Mr Hayes said the act was “unconscionable”.
Premier pushes major policy reforms
Aiming to win voters over with major policy change, the Coalition has pledged to give all homebuyers a choice between stamp duty or an annual property tax, plus deliver an ambitious future fund for all kids under 10.
Among Mr Perrottet’s keystone policies is the promise to make all poker machines cashless by 2028, a move that’s been celebrated by welfare groups and gambling reform advocates.
On Thursday, Mr Perrottet announced his government would begin work on the three key policies within the first 100 days of his government. This includes opening expressions of interest for his Kids Future Fund, establishing a cashless gaming transition taskforce and introduce legislation to expand stamp duty reform.
Key seats in Dom’s front bench
Should the Coalition hold onto government, key ministerial portfolios will need new faces due to retiring ministers.
This includes Geoff Lee (Corrections Minister), Brad Hazzard (Health Minister), David Elliott (Transport Minister), Rob Stokes (Cities, Infrastructure and Active Transport Minister) and Victor Dominello (Customer Service Minister).
Most recently, Damien Tudehope resigned as finance minister in February after it was discovered he “unknowingly” failed to disclose shares in major toll road operator Transurban. While he was cleared of knowingly breaching the ministerial code of conduct, Mr Tudehope said he didn’t want to be an “unnecessary distraction” during the election.
Miranda MP Eleni Petinos was also sacked as the fair trading and small business minister after publicised bullying allegations.
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