Ray Hadley claims Gladys Berejiklian leaked against successor Dominic Perrottet

Sydney shock jock Ray Hadley claims senior MPs leaked information to him about Dominic Perrottet’s handling of the pandemic.

Sydney shock jock Ray Hadley has claimed former premier Gladys Berejiklian and other MPs have been leaking information to him because they are unhappy with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

In a tense interview on Monday, Mr Hadley grilled Mr Perrottet over whether he labelled the 2GB host and others who warned about restrictions being eased too soon “bedwetters”.

The Premier scrapped mandatory mask wearing and QR code check-ins on December 15, despite advice from chief health officer Kerry Chant to the contrary, as Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 cases rose around the world.

A week later he reinstated the restrictions, before bans on dancing, singing and non-urgent elective surgery followed, as infections began to spiral in NSW over the festive period.

Hadley has been a vocal critic of Mr Perrottet’s handling of the pandemic, particularly the decision to revoke restrictions on December 15.

On Monday, the radio host claimed Mr Perrottet called him a “bedwetter” at a Christmas drinks function for MPs, of which the Premier said had “no recollection”.

Hadley accused Mr Perrottet of telling ministers of the NSW government, following his cabinet reshuffle in December, “we won’t cave in to NSW Health on masks”.

“What you’ve got to understand, Dominic, is that you’ve got people leaking to me because they’re not happy with you. They’re not happy with you and they’re very senior members of your government,” he said.

“It’s no good denying it, I know you said it. And you did cave in, on December 23.”

Under the Covid road map concocted in 2021 by the Berejiklian government, masks and QR codes were among restrictions to be scrapped on December 1.

Mr Perrottet pushed that back to December 15 to allow time for more people to be vaccinated, as he reminded Hadley on Monday. “What I did say is we highly recommend masks on December 15. That was the point we made. We’ve always had a road map, that was set out for December 1,” he said.

Hadley interrupted to say “Don’t blame Gladys. She’s gone” before claiming the former premier had discussed Mr Perrottet’s handling of the pandemic with the 2GB host.

“You were part of a team that were trying to push the December 15 date, whether you deny it or not. Because that’s come straight from her to me,” he said.

“You deny it. I’m telling you, she says you were part of the push to get the brakes released on December 15, and when you became Premier you were intent on doing it.”

Mr Perrottet said there were always differing opinions on government decisions and his focus was on keeping people safe and in work.

“Ray, I’ve said over the last two years there are always different opinions at different points in time … there are always different opinions as we make changes on various points to restrictions,” he said.

“In relation to face masks we highly recommended them on December 15. We made that change a week later and we’ll continue to revisit those changes as we go through.”

Ms Berejiklian was contacted for comment.

NCA NEWSWIRE