Liberal Party risk being captured by wealthy elites, NSW Treasurer warns

The Liberal Party risks capture by big business and wealthy elites, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has warned.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet during a speech at the Centre for independent Studies in Sydney. Picture: AAP

The Liberal Party risks capture by big business and wealthy elites, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has warned, backing claims by controversial French economist Thomas Piketty that major political parties around the world are increasingly mouthpieces for elite interests.

Speaking at the Centre for independent Studies in Sydney yesterday, Mr Perrottet said the NSW Liberal party, of which he is deputy leader, wasn’t beholden to the big end of town but risks were “real”.

“Piketty didn’t study Australia, but his analysis rings true here as well,” Mr Perrottet said, referring to his analysis that shows major parties in the US, France and UK were less and less representing the interests of ordinary people.

“Liberals have had to fight some bruising internal battles in recent times: to get lobbyists off the executive, to limit the influence of developers, and to make preselections more democratic,” he said.

“We might be resisting it — but the pressure from elite interests is real,” he added.

His comments followed rebuke of Labor leader Luke Foley by Labor elites for suggesting that some Sydney suburbs of Sydney were exhibiting “white flight” as a result of high immigration.

“Meanwhile on the left, parties that used to stand for the working class — are now captive to an out-of- touch, highly educated elite,” Mr Perrottet said.

The Treasurer conceded the NSW Liberal party, which recently rejected former prime minister Tony Abbott’s recommendation to open up preselections to a vote by all party members, had further to go and was still “far from complete purity”.

Mr Perrottet said the more the major parties opened up to members the “better outcomes and the higher the calibre of politicians on both sides”.

In a speech laying out the future fiscal challenges for NSW, particularly as health costs grow to consume a third of state revenue, Mr Perrottet sympathised with younger voters. “Back in 1975, the great Australian dream cost four times the median income. Today it’s thirteen times,” he said.

“When democracy is reduced to a contest of elites, more and more people will continue to feel shut-out by the major parties,” Mr Perrottet said.

“It’s no surprise then that last year Essential Research published a poll that found the most distrusted institutions in Australia were now political parties,” he added.