Kean still on MP’s pay as poll nears

Anthony Albanese’s new climate change tsar, Matt Kean, ­remains on the payroll of the NSW taxpayer almost a month after announcing his retirement from state parliament.

Former NSW treasurer Matt Kean. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Anthony Albanese’s new climate change tsar, Matt Kean, ­remains on the payroll of the NSW taxpayer almost a month after announcing his retirement from state parliament.

It comes amid speculation of an early federal election, potentially before possible October boundary changes, with the NSW Liberals having filled a raft of target seats and poised to react to the calling of a September poll.

The former NSW treasurer announced his exit from a 13-year-long political career in mid-June before blindsiding Liberal colleagues when he was revealed as the Prime Minister’s Climate Change Authority head a few days later.

Mr Kean, however, remains a member of state parliament, and has still not formally tendered his resignation.

To formalise his exit, before starting his new role next month, Mr Keen would need to send a letter to NSW Speaker Greg Piper, who would ratify the resignation before setting a by-election date with the NSW Electoral Commission.

Mr Piper has not received that letter and Mr Kean remains a MP, “sitting there collecting a salary from the taxpayer”, one Liberal insider said, suggesting the delay was to allow him to help his preferred successor, lawyer James Wallace, in the Liberal preselection for Hornsby.

“They’re worried about the numbers for Wallace,” one party insider said, calling him a “blow-in” and “Kean on steroids”.

Other party sources downplayed the lack of a formal exit, noting that Mr Kean had a few weeks until he assumed his ­new role, understood to be on August 1, and that he remained working in his electorate.

Other sources suggested it was to allow a by-election to be timed with one in Dominic Perrottet’s seat of Epping, with the former premier’s own resignation “imminent”.

Macquarie St sources said Mr Perrottet had been “actively talking” about his valedictory speech, which could be as soon as the first sitting week upon parliament’s return in August.

It comes amid Labor announcing candidates in target Queensland seats, including ­Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s electorate of Dickson, fuelling speculation of an early election.

Federal political insiders said Mr Albanese could be convinced of the advantages of an early poll, given the Australian Electoral Commission’s suggested boundary changes – that appeared to better benefit the Liberals – rising inflation and the emergence of The Muslim Vote campaign.

That campaign has targeted Labor-held Melbourne and Sydney seats with high Muslim populations, but its electoral threat would be reduced if it was forced to fight an election in a few months.

Anthony Albanese with Dickson candidate Ali France, right, on Friday. Picture: John Gass

State Liberals, scarred from a slew of late preselections in recent state and federal elections, are on track to lock in candidates in their own target seats.

A senior Liberal source with knowledge of the process said that the party was in an ­“advanced state of readiness”, ­including if Mr Albanese decided to call a September election ­before the AEC’s boundary changes.

At last year’s state election the party’s faction-riddled apparatuses meant that some target seats were left without candidates until only a couple of months before polling day, hampering the party’s ability to campaign and build name recognition.

In Wentworth, candidate Ro Knox was announced in April to attempt to win back the seat from teal independent Allegra Spender and Scott Yung was ­announced in November as its Bennelong candidate, where proposed boundary changes remake that electorate notionally Liberal.