NSW Liberals’ love-hate relationship with their one-man brand Matt Kean

The NSW treasurer has become arguably the most influential politician inside the government as it seeks to stave off a challenge from Labor. So who is Matt Kean?

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has become arguably the most influential politician inside the NSW government. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Intelligent, charming, ambitious and disingenuous. These four words pop up over and over again in opinions expressed about NSW Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader Matt Kean.

Ally, enemy, Labor, Liberal; the tags rarely differ.

Kean has become arguably the most influential politician inside the NSW government, driving the state Coalition’s progressive climate platform to the chagrin of conservatives and sections of the commentariat who believe his brand of liberalism is anathema to the Liberal Party.

According to his defenders, he is the sole reason the party stands a chance of not being wiped out by teal independents at the March election. But as a consequence of his power base, the 41-year-old has evolved into its most divisive politician. And perhaps the most complicated.

“He is a radical centrist. It’s almost an oxymoron,” one moderate MP says.

Those who disdain Kean believe he is hellbent on dragging the party to the left of Labor, or even the Greens.

That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of Kean’s mindset, and of the Australian political landscape, says John Brogden, the former NSW Liberal leader who hired Kean as an adviser in 2003.

“The centre of Australia is moving to the left,” Brogden asserts, noting Kean identified the shifting political winds early and forced the policy changes once he was handed the energy and environment portfolios.

But Kean’s vociferous approach to policy has not been confined to energy, climate and other “woke” issues, one long-time Liberal conservative operative recalls.

During the intense internal Coalition scrap over former premier Mike Baird’s controversial call to ban greyhound racing in NSW, Kean was privately arguing against the decision, saying it would damage the party’s electoral prospects.

Even conservatives begrudgingly concede in private that while they disagree with stances on policy, they see him as a necessary evil to ensure the party continues on as a broad church, appealing to a broad swath of the electorate.

“He is a fundamental part of the NSW Liberal Party. There are some people who won’t vote for Dom because of what he stands for, but there are others who hate Kean,” one conservative MP says.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Treasurer Matt Kean in a press conference where they outlined the Liberals’ $116 billion infrastructure pipeline. Picture: Julian Andrews

Brogden agrees, saying the partnership between Perrottet and Kean has been part of the “secret sauce” that has the Coalition remarkably close to snatching the election on March 25.

If the Liberal Party wants to continue as a “big tent”, ensuring as many people as possible see themselves as being represented by the party, MPs such as Kean are essential, says Brogden.

Tucked away at Bills in Bondi, a cafe in Sydney’s affluent eastern enclave, Kean is on message.

With the election a mere weeks away, he does not deviate from his key talking points: the Coalition will manage the state’s finances responsibly, continue record infrastructure spending, and deliver surpluses.

What does he want his legacy as Treasurer to be?

“Responsible spending,” he replies, and to “deliver surpluses”.

Does he still agree with his opinion that the party’s plebiscite preselection structure is undermining efforts to get women into the party?

“What I’m saying is that my laser focus is on making sure we navigate the significant economic headwinds that we are facing, and we come out stronger on the other side,” he responds.

For a man who has driven the Coalition’s progressive agenda since he was handed the energy and environment portfolios in April 2019, his responses are oddly glib. “His talking points sound like something ChatGPT would spit out if asked to write a political speech,” one adviser to a peak body quips about Kean’s public profile.

Kean has just finished a street walk with aspiring Vaucluse Liberal candidate Kellie Sloane, popping into the array of cafes and boutique fashion stores lining Bondi’s ever-affluent Hall Street.

The area is encompassed in the federal seat of Wentworth, claimed by independent Allegra Spender over Liberal MP Dave Sharma in May as the baseball bats came out in force for Scott Morrison.

But any lingering hatred for the former prime minister, or the Liberal Party for that matter, is nowhere to be seen on this hot February afternoon. Out on the hustings, Kean is gregarious, affable and curious, engaging locals and tourists alike. One mid-20s female shop attendant named Charlotte says she plans to vote Liberal at the state election.

Holding seats such as Vaucluse along with the raft of other teal- and independent-threatened seats – Pittwater, Wakehurst, North Shore, Willoughby and Lane Cove – will be imperative if the government is to have any chance of holding power.

Kean has been tasked with reassuring voters in these once-blue ribbon seats the NSW brand of the party is vastly different from its more conservative federal iteration; selling its achievements on climate, childcare reforms, and boosting women’s workforce participation.

“Kean will be vindicated if in the election we don’t lose seats to the teals. That is his KPI,” one moderate MP says, noting internal NSW Liberal polling in these areas is significantly better than at the corresponding point in the federal campaign.

“If we lose a whole bunch of them, then that is a repudiation of the Kean approach.”

Kean with his partner Wendy, their son Tom, and her daughters Jasmine and Monique. Picture: Tim Hunter

Kean’s clean-energy reforms have strong appeal in these seats, but enrage his critics. Delays to the federal government’s Snowy 2.0 hydro project and projections by the Australian Energy Market Operator of an energy shortfall in NSW by 2025-26 due to the closure of coal-fired power plants in the Hunter have created uncertainty about the path forward.

This has been exacerbated by the threat of teal independents, who have declared they are dead against the use of fossil fuels.

Keen’s strength in the corporate sector is less well known. He has quietly used his network with big business to become a fundraising powerhouse for the Liberal Party, figures obtained by Inquirer reveal. Representing almost a quarter of donations made to the party, Kean’s Hornsby electorate has contributed $363,000 to the state’s electoral fund, well in advance of other MPs including Mark Coure’s electorate of Oatley, Stuart Ayres in Penrith and Alister Henskens in Ku-ring-gai.

Kean’s contributions to threatened seats was single-handedly keeping the party alive, one Liberal strategists says.

“Matt Kean speaks the language of the BCA and corporate part of the world. That’s a key difference to Dom,” a conservative figure says.

“Most guys use fair trading portfolios for electoral purposes. Kean used it for networking, meeting business figures and policy reform. He’s a clever bastard.”

To understand the rise of the Riverview-educated moderate powerbroker, one must first understand the genesis of the fracturing of the NSW Liberal Party’s right wing.

The decision by Alex Hawke, who went on to become immigration minister, to split from his former boss, David Clarke, in 2009 and carve off his own powerbase – creating the third faction in the state party, known as the soft right – sparked an animosity that still simmers to this day. A major beneficiary of this splintering? Kean. “He was the only one of the moderates who realised he could use the acrimony to his own advan­tage,” one conservative source says.

The factional split and retirement of then Hornsby MP Judy Hopwood opened the door for Kean, then an accountant for PwC, to run for the safe Liberal seat in 2011, with the moderates working with the soft right to ensure the 29-year-old had the number to prevail over Nick Berman, the local mayor.

His success can’t be simply reduced to opportunism, however, with both Liberal insiders noting he has a pragmatism that allows him to transcend factional demarcations to achieve deals.

“Other moderates are so ideologically inclined they don’t want to deal with the right, but Kean didn’t give a shit about that. That’s where a lot of Matt’s power comes from,” an MP adds.

“People on the right of the party may not like him but they realise they have to deal with him to get things done,” another powerbroker says.

Unloved by the majority of the Liberal Party “base” – older, whiter and more conservative than the rest of the electorate – Kean, says one moderate MP, does little to try and change their opinions of him.

“Kean starves them of any nutrients by not giving them anything, and then antagonises them,” he says, using Liberal senator Andrew Bragg as an example of a moderate who is given leeway on progressive issues such as the voice because he throws “red meat” to branch members, such as reforming super or criticising the ABC.

But rather than trying to quell the rumblings, Kean has at times appeared to whip up the fury.

One NSW conservative MP recalls that during the Covid lockdown, Kean appeared on Sky from his home wearing a green hoodie, an evident nod to his moniker of “Matt Green”.

“It’s almost become a sport for him to be unpopular with branch members but popular more broadly. That’s not a successful long-term strategy,” one former MP says. With the prospect of Perrottet clinging on to power firming but still slim, chatter about Kean’s future – mostly driven by him, according to colleagues – has quietly intensified.

Despite seemingly being the next in line for the Liberal leadership, Kean’s colleagues say he has openly discussed making the jump to Canberra, a plan to eventually take over the federal seat of Bradfield from manager of opposition business Paul Fletcher, when he eventually retires.

One former MP questions the wisdom of the move, saying the federal Liberal brand was vastly more conservative than in NSW, pondering whether perhaps that was part of the challenge for Kean trying to stamp his brand of politics on the national stage.

“He is definitely interested in Canberra,” says one colleague, suggesting he could jump to the corporate sector before making a play at Bradfield or even North Sydney.

“I don’t understand why he wants to go to Canberra. His influence will diminish significantly. He will go from a very big fish in a medium-sized pond, to a small fish in a big pond,” a former MP says.

Kean denies the claims he has plan to exit Macquarie Street but the question for many is whether Kean’s political strategy might undermine his efforts to be preselected. While in an ostensibly moderate electorate, MPs said branch members’ visceral dislike of him meant he was not guaranteed to win a plebiscite if he ran.

If he stays on – a scenario some insiders say is possible if Labor just wins – Liberal MPs say the pool of likely challengers for opposition leader will be shallow, with Trade Minister Henskens the only name mentioned consistently.

A Labor MP says Kean’s promotion to opposition leader would succeed their wildest dreams: “He is a divisive figure, and the Liberals already have problems. If he’s the leader and they’re in opposition, it will be extraordinary to watch.”

To succeed down either avenue, he’ll need to convince many he is the right man for the job. That will require dispelling questions about his personality – but one MP says those who question his authenticity probably don’t understand the man.

“He is genuinely disingenuous. That’s what he’s like.”