‘Losing was the best thing that ever happened to me’: What Dom Perrottet did next

It’s often said there’s nothing more “ex” than an ex-prime minister. But there is a possible exception: an ex-premier.

We have 10 living former premiers in NSW and by far the youngest is Dominic Perrottet. He joined that club at the tender age of 40 when the Coalition government he led was voted out of office two years ago. So what does one so youthful do next?

Former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet concedes defeat at the 2023 state election.Credit: James Brickwood

For Perrottet, it was an overseas posting with one of Australia’s most recognisable companies. Soon after his valedictory speech to a packed lower house of NSW parliament last August, he left the country to become BHP’s man in Washington.

I catch up with Perrottet for lunch at Beppi’s Italian in east Sydney while he’s on a stopover in the city between meetings at BHP headquarters in Melbourne and a visit to Chile. Perrottet arrives cheerful and relaxed, dressed in jeans, a light blue jacket and a white shirt.

Fernando, the maitre d’, invites us to the restaurant’s private dining space, a small room lined with vintage wine bottles stacked on racks.

As an MP, Perrottet had a habit of saying Sydney was “the best city in the best state in the world”, but he seems happy to be living elsewhere right now. “It’s good having anonymity back,” Perrottet says of life in the US. “On the metro in DC, no one knows who you are. You occasionally get noticed at an airport or taking the train to New York. But outside that, it’s great – I feel like a normal human being.”

In many ways, says Perrottet, losing in 2023 was the best thing that could have happened to him.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Perrottet’s famously large family – he and his wife, Helen, have seven children – live in Bethesda, Maryland, an affluent suburb just across the border from the US capital crawling with diplomats and government officials.

He heads up US corporate and external affairs for BHP, the world’s biggest mining company by market capitalisation. Perrottet describes the role as “positioning” BHP in America. He even “ended up” at the Starlight Presidential Ball, one of the key events held in Washington to mark Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

“I’m really enjoying getting to understand all the different aspects of the business; it’s so varied,” he says. “This is also such an interesting time to be in the States.”

The job also involves monitoring what’s going on in Washington. Despite differences between the US and Australian systems, Perrottet says his time in politics is proving useful.

“I think the political understanding that you build up is translatable across jurisdictions,” he says. “Whilst there might be differences in colour and movement, as we’re seeing now in the US, ultimately the principles are similar. So being in an area which I innately understand and appreciate is helpful.”

Veal scaloppine folded with prosciutto, Asiago cheese, sage and white wine sauce with garlic broccolini. Credit: Photo: Wolter Peeters, The Sydney Morning Herald.

Perrottet believes shifting to America has been good for him and his family. “To be in a position to give the children a great cultural experience, to be investing more time with them, but at the same time being so stimulated myself by the work with BHP is great,” he says.

Perrottet chooses veal scaloppine folded with prosciutto, asiago cheese, sage and white wine sauce. I go for one of the house specials – saffron risotto with short rib beef pulled off the bone.

Beppi’s is known for its Italian wine list, and Perrottet opts for chardonnay. “Would you like Sicilian chardonnay or from Tuscany?” asks Fernando. “Sicilian,” says Perrottet confidently. (When the bill comes, I find we had unwittingly ordered a bottle worth $180. Thankfully, Fernando didn’t offer the chardonnay from Umbria – that was $320.)

Perrottet enjoyed a political rocket ride after being elected to NSW parliament as the member for Castle Hill in 2011, when he was just 28. He subsequently held the seats of Hawkesbury and Epping.

Perrottet is enjoying giving his children the experience of living overseas.Credit: Wolter Peeters

It took Perrottet only three years to be promoted to the front bench, and he was elevated to treasurer in 2017. He became NSW premier in October 2021 following the surprise resignation of Gladys Berejiklian; at 39, Perrottet was the youngest person ever to hold that job.

As Fernando fills our wine glasses (no doubt approving of our accidental choice), the conversation turns to his exit from politics.

Perrottet became premier just 18 months before the NSW election in March 2023; the Coalition government he led had been in office for more than a decade, and there was a mood change. The election was lost, but it was no landslide: his Labor opponents failed to win a lower house majority and rely on independents for confidence and supply.

Perrottet says he felt “strangely content and happy” after the defeat. “It was always going to be hard to win that election, so it wasn’t like ‘shock, horror, you’ve lost!’” he says. “From the start, I’ve had this position that we’re just passing through these jobs, ultimately, you do everything that you can to make a difference because you may not be there tomorrow.”

Perrottet after his valedictory speech to NSW parliament in August 2024.Credit: Pool

Later in our conversation, when Perrottet speaks about how leaving government has allowed him to spend more time with his family, he proclaims: “In many ways, losing the election was the best thing that ever happened to me.” That remark did follow a second glass of the Sicilian chardonnay.

Perrottet’s transition out of parliament was slow; he lingered on the opposition backbench for more than a year before quitting. He compares this to a game of snakes and ladders. “There are not many jobs where you progress in your career and then ‘oh … you’re straight back down to the bottom’, but that’s what happened; it’s like I was back to where I was at the age of 28,” he says.“Walking back into parliament felt like I was a professional football player who had retired, but I still had to rock up to the games; it was in your face every day.”

COVID was perhaps the defining episode of Perrottet’s political career. He became premier amid the disruption, and his determination to lift pandemic restrictions earned him the nickname “Domicron”: a portmanteau of Dominic and the coronavirus omicron variant which was making headlines at the time.

But Perrottet also had an unusual appetite for attempting big economic reforms. Most ambitious was his bid to rid NSW of stamp duty, the enormous levy paid on property purchases that most economists agree is Australia’s worst, most inefficient tax.

Dominic Perrottet hits the hustings selling his stamp duty reforms ahead of the 2023 NSW election.Credit: Photo: Dean Sewell / SMH

Soon after becoming premier, Perrottet introduced a scheme giving most first home buyers a choice between paying stamp duty or a much smaller annual charge, similar to council rates. Many opted for the annual charge.

Perrottet tells me he “would’ve gone further” and given more home buyers that choice had the Coalition won the 2023 election, but ultimately, his stamp duty reforms foundered. The Minns government scrapped Perrottet’s scheme after winning office.

In early 2023, Perrottet took on the state’s powerful gambling industry with a promise to make all NSW poker machines cashless by the end of 2028. The aim was to reduce gambling harm and combat money-laundering. But the Coalition’s electoral defeat meant Perrottet’s poker machine revolution was never implemented. “On reform, I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked,” says Perrottet. “But I still think you lay a foundation for future change.”

He warns a “reluctance to reform” has crept into Australian politics. “There’s a bias to not move; there’s a bias in politics to maintain the status quo,” he says. “But you’ve got to ask yourself, why are you here? Politics is hard; it’s hard if you’re doing something, and it’s hard if you’re doing nothing. It’s hard either way, so you may as well do something.”

In his valedictory speech, Perrottet claimed Canberra was becoming “a cemetery” of reform. “I don’t think we imagine enough where we could be as a nation,” he said. “If we did, I think we’d provide greater opportunity and prosperity for our people,” he says.

Dominic Perrottet visits a flood-hit business in Lismore while premier in March 2022Credit: Elise Derwin

Perrottet jokes that he was “born in the wrong era” of politics and would have thrived in the past when there was “less bureaucracy to get in the way” of reforms. “When you walk down to the parliamentary chamber, you go past all these black and white photos of past members – back when they were probably smoking cigars in the chamber – that is when I should have been in parliament,” he says.

With an eye-roll, he tells the story of arranging to erect a small statue of former NSW premier and chief justice James Martin in Martin Place and Parramatta. “That took me years – years,” he says. “I was treasurer at the time; could you imagine if I was the treasurer 100 years ago? Probably could have just said, ‘I want a statue in Martin Place; can it be done by 5pm tomorrow, please?’”

The bill at Beppi’s.

Over coffee, I ask what experiences most affected Perrottet during his political career. “COVID was really hard,” he says. “I remember going to the first crisis cabinet meeting and having a discussion about whether we have enough burial space – that was like the first agenda item – and fair enough, because no one knew where it was going. The gravity of that situation was enormous, and sitting around that table was extraordinary.”

Perrottet also singles out the 2022 flood disaster that devastated Lismore and surrounding areas.

“The floods, for me personally, as premier, are something that will be with me for the rest of my life,” he says. “I was emotionally impacted, genuinely deeply moved, by what I saw and the courageous nature of people. It drove me to do everything I could to make a difference.”

It is striking how fervently the young ex-premier still speaks about politics and policy debates.

“Politics is something I’ve had a passion for since I was very young,” he says. “I have friendships from both sides of politics that I’ll have for life because that passion is something I have in common with people … I really enjoy debating ideas and perspectives, and I’ll enjoy that for the rest of my life.”

Has Perrottet completely closed the door on a return to politics? “I think so,” he says with just a hint of misgiving. “I did that for 13 years, that’s a long time, so I think so, yeah.”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.