Perrottet flies out of Sydney leaving fresh scandal in his wake

A defining characteristic of Dominic Perrottet’s nine months as premier is an overriding sense that he is constantly fighting uphill battles. Some have been of his own making, others not.

The latest – the saga around the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum New York trade position – is only showing signs of worsening and is yet another battle overshadowing Perrottet’s leadership.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is leaving the country on a trade mission.Credit: Louie Douvis

Perrottet is adamant the Barilaro appointment had nothing to do with him and has consistently pointed to the public service as the decision maker. Clearly oblivious to the so-called pub test, he has failed to see any “substantive issue” with the whole sorry affair.

Perhaps that will now change. On the very day that the scandal took a new turn, and it emerged that a former senior government staffer claimed that Barilaro told him he would create the New York role for his post-political life, Perrottet is leaving Sydney on a trade mission.

To make matters worse, Perrottet also has the added drama of former Liberal minister John Sidoti being found by the anti-corruption commission to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct.

The trade mission should be a good-news story for the premier. Instead, Perrottet’s first overseas trip as leader will likely be dominated by the brewing disaster in his government over a trade appointment, as well as a corrupt MP.

Perrottet flew to Tokyo yesterday evening, with Seoul and Mumbai also on his itinerary. The idea was to showcase why trade commissioners are so important for NSW. That will be a hard sell.

In the shadow of the extremely popular former leader Gladys Berejiklian, Perrottet’s leadership started off rocky. His first big challenge was the state’s COVID-19 Omicron wave.

Perrottet pushed ahead with easing a raft of restrictions, including scrapping crowd density limits and dropping QR codes and masks in most settings in mid-December as cases soared. He had to backtrack on his decision two days before Christmas.

He made that initial decision despite advice from trusted Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant that masks should stay as the state faced tens of thousands of new COVID-19 cases. In that instance, Perrottet believed his stance on reopening was the appropriate one.

At the time he said it must fall to elected representatives, “not the public service”, to make decisions. “That’s just not the Westminster system,” Perrottet said.

Yet when it comes to Barilaro’s highly controversial appointment, Perrottet has been happy to take a completely hands-off approach and leave it to the public service to justify and defend the decision.

Assuming the announcement of an independent inquiry through his Department of Premier and Cabinet would be enough, the premier has allowed the Barilaro controversy to continue to fester, to the despair of many of his colleagues.

Perrottet may well have not been the one to hand Barilaro the coveted $500,000-a-year job in Manhattan, but the premier has failed to bring an end to an issue that has sucked all oxygen from his government. If the appointment was not of his making, the ongoing damaging fallout is.

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