Perrottet consulted Keating on kids future fund

Continuing their unlikely friendship, the NSW Premier said he consulted Labor icon Paul Keating about his party’s key election pledge.

Labor legend Paul Keating and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet at Barangaroo in October 2022. Mr Perrottet said he “raised” with Mr Keating the Coalition’s key election pledge. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says he raised with former Labor prime minister Paul Keating his idea for the government’s kids ­future fund election pledge.

“I’d raised it with him and I’d raised it with a number of people,” Mr Perrottet told Sky News on Friday. “We always share ideas together.”

Mr Perrottet said Mr Keating nonetheless did not have input into the election pledge.

The Liberal Premier, who hails from the conservative faction, has an unlikely friendship with Mr Keating.

“Thank God for the Premier,” Mr Keating said in 2022 at a joint press conference with Mr Perrottet. “States get lucky. They get people with a civic conscience. And we have one with the Premier.”

The Coalition’s kids’ future fund has been compared to the superannuation system, for which Mr Keating is often credited. The $850m opt-in plan would see every child given $400 in a fund when they are born, with the state government matching parent contributions up to $400 until they turn 18. Parents could pay up to $1000 a year, meaning children could end up with $50,000.

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