John Barilaro blows dogwhistle on Matt Kean … after backing him

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro privately endorsed his Environment Minister’s proposals for ambitious commitments on climate change.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. Picture: Rohan Kelly

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro privately endorsed Environment Minister Matt Kean’s proposals for ambitious commitments on climate change and a shift towards a renewable energy economy during a cabinet debate on the issues late last year.

Despite this support, Mr Barilaro has since turned on Mr Kean with a series of public remarks criticising elements of the same proposal and contradicting his earlier endorsements. Mr Barilaro’s latest attacks on the minister include a radio interview and newspaper column, published on Thursday, in which he accused Mr Kean of pushing a green ideology at the expense of bushfire management. He said this ideology would “set up our regions to fail” by cramming “solar farms and wind turbines” on to rural communities.

“We get lectured to about climate change, by people in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, including my own Environment Minister,” Mr Barilaro said in a radio interview on Thursday.

In the column, he alleged Mr Kean wanted to devolve the agriculture, forestry and mining industries as part of an “ideological pursuit to net zero emissions”. Yet in the privacy of the cabinet room, he raised no objection to Mr Kean’s plans to pursue net zero emissions or to canvass an increase in renewable energy investment.

Mr Kean wants to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 35 per cent ahead of 2030, with a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

A second submission, to conduct a feasibility study into decarbonising the economy and shifting NSW towards a greater reliance on renewable energies and exports, was also approved.

Multiple sources have confirmed Mr Barilaro endorsed the policies without criticism.

“What Matt brought to cabinet was circulated to all ministers,” said a government source. “Everyone had a chance to read it, and it’s just not the case that there were any objections to it. It’s perplexing because he (Mr Barilaro) says one thing on radio but another in the cabinet room.”

A minister familiar with the discussion said the Deputy Premier “was a big supporter of Kean’s policies” until he left Australia for a holiday to Britain with his family just before Christmas. While Mr Barilaro was away, Mr Kean gave an interview spruiking the economic benefits of renewable energy and a decarbonised economy. Mr Barilaro has since publicly taken aim at Mr Kean, painting him as a city-based climate warrior out of touch with regional communities. Some fellow Nationals MPs have voiced similar concerns, including Water Minister Melinda Pavey and Parliamentary Secretary Michael Johnsen.

Coalition colleagues say Mr Barilaro’s attacks on Mr Kean serve a secondary purpose of dogwhistling to regional voters and helping fend off perceptions that the Nationals are beholden to progressive forces in the Liberal Party.