How Labor convinced a former Liberal treasurer to take a key climate job

Matt Kean was heading home on the train one Friday afternoon five weeks ago when his mobile phone lit up with an unexpected call from federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Kean, the former Liberal NSW treasurer and energy minister, was in a crowded carriage on Sydney’s north shore line and unprepared for what Bowen was about to suggest: a new job at the peak agency setting climate change targets for the country.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen (right) has helped recruit a senior Liberal, and a public critic of nuclear power, in a way that reminds voters of the gulf within the Coalition on energy and climate.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Bowen had to wait for Kean to hop off the train at the next stop and find some privacy at the far end of Chatswood Station before they could talk undisturbed about a role that would outrage federal Liberals and Nationals, who believe one of their own has joined the enemy.

With his direct criticism of nuclear energy on Monday, Kean has infuriated the federal Coalition even though his public remarks were entirely in keeping with his policy support for wind and solar when he was energy minister and treasurer in the previous NSW government.

The conversation on May 17 did not seal Kean’s appointment as chair of the Climate Change Authority, the key federal body that offers independent advice to the federal government. Bowen told him, however, that he thought Kean would be the best person for the job.

The call came at an ideal time for Kean because, he says, he had already decided to end his time as a NSW backbencher and seek new posts in the private sector. He kept the decision to himself, however, and only broke the news last Tuesday before delivering his valedictory to state parliament on Friday.

Federal cabinet signed off on the appointment on Monday morning and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese clearly sees it as a coup. Bowen has helped recruit a senior Liberal and a public critic of nuclear power in a way that reminds voters of the gulf within the Coalition on energy and climate.

Some Liberals and Nationals smell a rat and are accusing Kean of disloyalty. Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has called Kean’s decision treachery. Kean says it is a natural step after his work as minister to get more renewables into the electricity grid.

“I’ve always been a Liberal, I will always be a Liberal, but I am an Australian first and foremost,” he says.

What does he say to those who think he has deserted his side of politics?

“This is about public service, this is about an opportunity to serve Australians and ensure we’re best placed to lower household energy bills, grow our economy and set us up for a better future,” he says.

As chair of the authority, Kean will have plenty of scope to take board seats and other positions in the private sector as they emerge. He says he has none on the agenda at this point. The current chair, Grant King, who departs in early August, is a prominent company director and former managing director of Origin Energy.

(Another board member, Sam Mostyn, stepped down earlier this year to take up her post as governor-general next week.)

Kean is not hinting at his view on the biggest decision for the authority this year: whether it tells the government to commit to a much deeper target than its planned 43 per cent cut in emissions by 2030. A new goal for 2035 must be set, and some climate campaigners say it should be at least 60 per cent, but the authority will not send its advice until the final three months of the year.

The government is unlikely to decide the 2035 target until after the federal election. Labor wants the election debate to be all about Dutton’s decision not to have a 2030 target at all.

Kean set a state target of 70 per cent by 2035 when he was in government, so the environmental movement will want him to hold firm to that ideal.

But Albanese and Bowen are no doubt confident that Kean will not surprise them with a radical proposal as chair of this new agency. Kean is, after all, a member of the Liberal Party’s moderate wing.

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