Dominic Perrottet’s juggling act: faith, fatherhood and the fight of his life
A deeply conservative man with a progressive agenda. A dad of seven with an oddly calm house. A gambling reformer who enjoys a punt. What other surprises does NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet have in store?
It’s a Thursday afternoon in the Perrottet household and the NSW Premier is making his kids an after-school snack in the kitchen of the family home in Beecroft, northwest Sydney. There’s a loaf of white bread, a two-litre bottle of milk and some crackers on the bench; soon, the clink of a spoon on a bowl as cereal is downed.
One may have expected chaos to descend as the kids file into the house. But there’s an atmosphere here that can only be described as calm – despite seven children ranging from 12 months to 13 years old, assorted staff from the Premier’s office, a couple of photographers and assistants, and The Weekend Australian Magazine team milling around the modest, somewhat sparse home.
We have witnessed the usual family routine, we learn. Mum collects the kids in the Tarago. Dad gives them a snack on the days he’s made it home in time. The peace and quiet cannot be solely for the cameras. Children, alas, don’t work like that. It’s clear the family operates as a cohesive, functional unit. Everyone seems to know their place. Perhaps it’s a cliché, but it is something you hear a lot about big families. If only politics worked the same way.
Expectations were low when Perrottet beat his rivals to seize the job leading the nation’s most populous state after Gladys Berejiklian quit abruptly. His government is still trailing in the polls. But in recent months there’s been a shift. Somehow, the Coalition, after 12 years in power, and which arguably looked tired as it installed its fourth leader, has managed to claw back some ground. Perrottet, against the background of economic turbulence and headwinds besetting federal Labor, has maintained his grip as preferred premier against Labor’s Chris Minns, mere weeks out from the state election.
What’s with all the kids? Mention the NSW Premier and it’s the first thing people tend to ask about. Not his moves to tackle pubs and clubs on poker machine gambling, or his introduction of universal preschool for four-year-olds. Nor do they ask after his predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian or, following that recent, humiliating episode, what kind of person dresses up in a Nazi uniform at their 21st birthday party? As NSW prepares to vote in two weeks on whether to elect the Liberal-National coalition government for a fourth straight term, it’s the 40-year-old’s household of seven kids that intrigues punters. Perrottet, a Christian conservative, announced that his wife Helen was expecting their youngest a mere two weeks after taking office. People love to wade in on the most deeply personal of decisions – particularly when it comes to political leaders. Having no children can be viewed as sad or selfish. Too many also raises eyebrows – in Perrottet’s case it usually leads to a discussion about his upbringing in Opus Dei, a strict religious wing of the Catholic Church. Either way, the electorate tends to wonder about what it will mean for them.
Perrottet says the public focus on his large family is “an interesting obsession”. “I don’t see how people judge that as being socially, or not socially, acceptable,” he says. “We wanted to have a large family. We love our children. We both grew up in large families, and we know how great it is.”
Helen Perrottet, in fact, is happy for more. Speaking as she breastfeeds her youngest, Celeste, on the sundeck overlooking the big leafy garden, the Premier’s wife, who works part-time as an employment lawyer and provides legal services for the Army (the family has a babysitter three days a week), describes her children as her greatest achievement. “I would love to have more,” she laughs. “Being a lawyer is nice but having seven kids is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
What’s it like to be parenting alongside the man who is running the state? “If he is here he incorporates it,” she responds. “So he will be on the phone and rocking a baby to sleep, or if he is going to a function and it’s kid-friendly he’ll take a couple.”
Research suggests the desire for a large family is greater for those who come from one themselves. It would follow that large families also teach resilience, sharing, the art of negotiation and how to tune out the white noise. Perrottet believes they do. He grew up with 11 siblings who were noisy, competitive and very close, and a mum who “kept us on a tight leash”. He was raised in Sydney in a culture of service. His dad John worked for the World Bank (the agenda of which is to end extreme poverty) and travelled often, always bringing home artefacts and ideas to discuss with his large brood.
“From a young age I got a strong understanding of issues in Third World countries and the importance of improving people’s lives that can come from service,” says Perrottet. “As a young person it made me think about issues that are outside the small environment that I grew up in. You learn more about the world and the challenges overseas. So it was always something as siblings we took an interest in.”
His mother raised them with a rotation of household chores. Nappies, polishing shoes. Ironing was Perrottet’s least favourite, and she set an agenda of dinnertime discussions about the news of the day. “When we had dinner we would have to present on a news article and debate it. So there was always an interest [in world affairs] from a young age.”
The unpredictable nature of family life has been a proving ground for the jostle of politics. Perrottet has tended to remain calm under intense pressure in the run-up to the state election. The day before our interview was planned he lost two high-ranking Liberal party allies (upper house MP Peter Poulos confessed to sharing explicit Penthouse photos of a female colleague he was battling for preselection five years ago; and finance minister Damien Tudehope resigned after “unknowingly” holding shares in Transurban, which owns most of the state’s toll roads). During the same week, two of Perrottet’s brothers, Liberal powerbrokers Jean-Claude and Charles, failed to front a NSW upper house inquiry into allegations of branch stacking; and Helen landed in hospital with three bulged discs after a workout session at the gym. The Premier’s media adviser sounded overwhelmed by logistics, the interview was postponed; and yet the Perrottet kids went to Saturday basketball with dad by their side. When he was treasurer, Perrottet had coached the team himself.
Former NSW premier Mike Baird says Perrottet has a genuine mix of humanity and political acumen. He was grateful for his backing as leader – including during 2016, when he decided to ban greyhound racing only to backflip on the decision after a near revolt from regional ministers. “For leaders there is a human need at times of siege and amidst the loneliness to have the support of colleagues who have a genuine interest in you, and support for you as a person rather than their own personal gain, and Dom did that with me,” says Baird, who is also known to be a devout Christian. “These days political leaders are like corks in the ocean, and he stands like a statue. He is naturally a conviction politician”.
-
He was one of 12 siblings. “Mum kept us on a tight leash”
-
A month out from polling day, the gap between Labor and the Liberal-National coalition had narrowed, according to a Newspoll survey. Labor still led on a two-party preferred basis, at 52 per cent and the Coalition was on 48 per cent. In a recent Roy Morgan survey, Perrottet was the preferred premier on 43 per cent to Minns’ 33 per cent.
Retiring NSW Liberal politician Rob Stokes says Perrottet can deliver the coalition another term in his first election as premier. “I really think he can win,” says Stokes, who fought against Perrottet for the state Liberal party leadership in 2021 after Gladys Berejiklian resigned amid an investigation by ICAC, the state corruption watchdog. “Dominic is one of these once-in-every-30-years politicians,” says Stokes, who counts Perrottet as a friend. “He is an extraordinary talent and a visionary.”
It looked like terrible timing when, in the midst of the Covid crisis, the overwhelmingly popular Berejiklian fronted the media to announce she was leaving politics immediately. Her secret relationship with former state MP Daryl Maguire – who is charged with criminal conspiracy over an alleged visa fraud – had surfaced 12 months earlier, but Berejiklian had appeared to weather the storm, and guided the state through its second lockdown. Her decision to quit sent the state reeling.
Berejiklian didn’t respond to requests to comment on Perrottet for this article. A number of people have suggested that Perrottet, whom she made treasurer in 2017, had been poised to move against her. Stokes dismisses the suggestion and echoes Baird when he describes the premier as extremely loyal. Although no one doubts his ambition.
Perrottet says he was disappointed to see Berejiklian go. “I’d seen all the work she had done during the pandemic so it was disappointing she had to leave in those circumstances, particularly when we were opening up the state,” he says. “It would have been a difficult decision to make.” Their working relationship was, he adds, “very strong”.
A Labor powerbroker who has known Perrottet and some of his brothers since university spoke to The Weekend Australian Magazine on condition of anonymity, describing Perrottet as a “very decent, ordinary guy” and adding that the Premier is “unfairly tainted” by his strong religious convictions.
Perrottet has voiced opposition to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage – none of which are political issues today. In 2019 NSW passed a bill decriminalising abortion, and in 2022 it became the last state in Australia to pass voluntary assisted dying legislation – a bill that was also opposed by Labor leader Chris Minns.
Asked if his views on same-sex marriage have changed since it became legal in 2017, Perrottet considers his words. “I am pretty relaxed about it,” he says. “Ultimately people make their own decisions and we all have different views in the world and that’s something to come together and celebrate. I believe in freedom and tolerance in society for people’s different views and backgrounds.” I press on: does he have a view on where politicians should stand on LGBTQ rights? Perrottet bristles. “I wonder if someone was an atheist or Muslim, the same questions would be asked,” comes the answer.
As the unnamed Labor powerbroker points out, despite Perrottet’s deeply conservative background his state government keeps coming out with socially progressive moves – a crackdown on gambling, which has been lauded by the Greens, and co-operating with Victorian leader and left-wing Labor hard man Dan Andrews on preschool policies. Perrottet has also backed Independent Alex Greenwich’s call for a ban on gay conversion therapy. “I believe in the separation of church and state,” he says. When his alma mata Redfield College (where he was school captain) and fellow Opus Dei-affiliated school Tangara were the focus of reports on the ABC that said children had “suffered” as a result of its strict teaching regarding sex, Perrottet swiftly called on the NSW Education Standards Authority to investigate. He has said publicly he is not a member of Opus Dei.
His move to ban the use of cash in poker machines – pitting him against the powerful ClubsNSW lobby group – is the one that may really move the social dial. The Premier says it was already on his agenda before a Crime Commission report on money laundering through machines provided the impetus for the change. “I remember being asked [as state treasurer], ‘How do you feel about the billions of dollars you get from gambling?’ and I thought about it and became very uncomfortable knowing that people were throwing their life savings down pokie machines,” he says.
Tighter regulation and less revenue in state coffers doesn’t feel like Liberal policy. Labor has declined to back the reform, committing only to a trial of a cashless system of 500 of the state’s 90,000 poker machines. It’s a muddying of traditional political ideologies that has confused even the Greens. Says NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann: “Neither party is going far enough to tackle gambling harm in NSW, but it’s a sad day when a Liberal premier is talking about protecting working-class communities from poker machines more than the Labor Party.”
At first glance, Perrottet’s so-called progressive overtures seem at odds with his conservative background – a drift to the left, perhaps, to capture the centre ground amid pressure that had been building on centre-right parties around the world? But Helen explains that her husband’s policy is consistent with his values, in so far as it will help look after vulnerable people. “If you look at his faith, the central tenets of his faith are love, hope, and charity,” she says. “With that comes looking after your neighbour. So I think that would be aligned with the poker [machine] reforms. I think that is consistent with his values.”
Internal Labor Party polling apparently shows the gambling reforms are not an election winner, but Perrottet says the government has an obligation to help those who can’t help themselves. “There are enough people that have a problem with this. It is affecting their lives and their families. It is not normal that in NSW we have more poker machines than anywhere in the world outside of Nevada. I think the people would think it’s a problem even if it doesn’t affect them. We all have a duty to look after other people.”
He is not, he insists, anti-gambling. “I gamble,” the Premier says. “I bet on the NFL and the NBA. I’ve got no problem with gambling, I’ve got a problem with problem gambling.”
Online gambling also spiked during the pandemic, and the Premier has vowed never to lock down the state again. Mental health, general health, the loss of education and jobs were overlooked as the state responded to Covid, he says. “I think in time we should reflect on the responses that as a nation we had. We should look back on the decisions and see what improvements could be made so when the situation happens again there is a blueprint where we have critically thought about how we responded, what went well and what could have been improved.”
It’s believed he pushed for a lighter approach during the pandemic and was against at least one lockdown extension. He won’t confirm this.
Could more have been done to protect the elderly while giving greater freedoms to the rest of the population? “That would be my view,” he says, although he doesn’t shirk responsibility for decisions at the time when he was NSW Treasurer as part of the state’s crisis committee. “I was a part of the decision-making at the time,” he says.
“There was the public health in terms of infections from Covid but there was also the broader health issues and mental health and educational outcomes for children and employment,” Perrottet says. “We lost close to 300,000 jobs. People were at the food bank getting support who had never had welfare support in their lives.”
The then-treasurer’s efforts to keep the NSW economy afloat during the crisis came as a relief to the business community. “He is a strong advocate for local businesses and the community,” says Ryan Stokes, chief executive and managing director of the diversified conglomerate Seven Group Holdings. Stokes dealt with Perrottet when he was treasurer on aspects of the evolving Covid policy. “I was impressed by his work ethic, intellect, and commitment to drive the economy of NSW.”
Within days of becoming Premier in October 2021, Perrottet announced a $250 payment for NSW households with school-age children. “This is a big thank you to every single mum and dad right across the state,” he said at the time. “We know it has been an incredibly difficult time of juggling kids, work and family life but we all owe you a great deal of gratitude.” He would be, he said, “the premier for families”.
It’s part of an avalanche of measures aimed to ease the burden on parents. The state has spent almost $7bn on non means-tested vouchers for kids’ sports, arts, costs such as school shoes and stationery, and before-and-after school care. Perhaps the biggest reform of all is the introduction of a universal year of preschool education before kindergarten for four-year-olds; a pilot scheme is being phased in from this month, and it will be rolled out by 2030.
Perrettot has been able to see for himself the rising pressures on families. He was unable to find spots for his older children in a pre-kindergarten program, and he knows that for those who do find a spot, the cost is often prohibitive.
“I don’t want that to be a problem,” he says. “I’ve seen in my own children the benefit of a pre-K education and all the evidence demonstrates that the educational outcome of a child prior to going to kindergarten has a direct link, not just to their educational outcomes but to their economic opportunities as well. To me, that’s a reform.” Perrottet worked with the strongly left-leaning Victorian Labor premier Dan Andrews to develop the preschool policy. “We partnered with Dan Andrews in terms of policy development. That’s the legacy we will have on our children and probably what I’m most proud of.”
Not that he is proud of everything he’s done. He says he is extremely sorry for his “stupid” decision to dress up as a Nazi at his own 21st birthday party, which took place the same year he became president of the Sydney University Liberal Club, two years before he was appointed president of the Young Liberals. Perrottet would go on to work as a lawyer at Henry Davis York before being elected to parliament in 2011.
Following the revelations in January, Perrottet fronted a press conference and called Jewish figures to apologise. It was a messy affair. It’s widely believed in Macquarie Street that the matter was an act of revenge from within his own party – the Premier owned up to wearing the offensive costume after outgoing Liberal minister David Elliott told him that someone was planning to use it against him. Elliott had earlier accused the Premier’s office of leaking a story about his son working for a gambling company when Elliott challenged Perrottet’s cashless gambling card reform.
As the incisive bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby from TV’s Yes Minister once said, “It is necessary to get behind someone in order to stab them in the back.” Perrottet doesn’t want to comment on who backstabs who in his government, describing it as “just part and parcel of the job. It doesn’t bother me at all”. It brings us back to his large family upbringing. “As a kid growing up you are debating things all the time and you just don’t take things personally,” he says. “If I’m doing the right thing that’s all that matters.”
Former deputy premier John Barilaro stands by Perrottet, despite being embroiled in a “jobs for the boys” scandal that stalled the government last year after it was accused of giving Barilaro a plum US trade role ahead of a better qualified candidate. Barilaro, who led the NSW Nationals from 2016 to 2021, says Perrottet is one of the few people you meet in politics who you want to remain friends with. “He’s taken the leadership at a time when there is a mood for change, but people shouldn’t underestimate him,” says Barilaro.
For most of the period leading up to the election, Labor leader Chris Minns has adopted a small-target approach, mirroring Anthony Albanese’s tactic in 2022. Scott Morrison’s government was wiped out in the last federal election, and NSW and Tasmania are the only remaining Liberal states or territories. But the so-called Teals, which delivered power to Albanese’s Labor by robbing the Liberals of heartland seats, are not considered much of a factor in the upcoming NSW election.
“I think our government doesn’t have the issues of the federal government,” says Perrottet. “We’ve got an incredibly strong track record on the environment and women’s issues. My support for the integrity agencies and taking leadership on issues such as problem gambling… these are issues that resonate on the ground so I don’t see why people would vote for a Teal candidate in NSW.” The NSW Government has committed to reducing emissions by 70 per cent by 2035 (compared to 2005 levels); however, on women’s issues it has been criticised for a lack of female representation in cabinet.
To win the NSW state election, Perrottet says he needs to win the western suburbs of Sydney, where cost of living pressures are biting hard. “Western Sydney is where it will be won or lost,” he says. “There is pressure on household budgets, trying to make ends meet, whether it’s rent or interest rates, groceries. It’s a challenge. Our economic management has enabled us to be able to put more downward pressure on household budgets than anywhere else in the country.” Days after the interview, the government issued a press release under the heading: “100,000 new jobs for Western Sydney”.
The election will test whether the Premier has made enough of a positive impression on voters – but also how federal Labor is tracking 10 months after the federal election. How does Perrottet rate his chances? “I think they are good,” he says. “I think we’ve achieved a lot in 18 months, dealing with external events like the natural disasters, like the pandemic, plus driving a significant reform agenda.”
Within weeks, he may no longer be premier. So has he made the most of his time in the job? He cites preschool, pokies and stamp duty reform (giving those buying homes the option of paying an annual property tax instead of an upfront lump sum). “They are all important. I’m not going to die wondering here. I got into politics to make a difference and to have new ways of thinking.”
Perrottet says if he wasn’t in politics he’d be a barrister. But the man who became the youngest premier in the history of NSW has also long held federal ambitions. Mike Baird, for one, reckons Perrottet is prime minister material. “There is only a select few that could undertake that role and he is certainly one of them,” he says.
Juggling that particular job with the needs of a young family would be a whole other matter. And yet it remains to be seen if there will be any more to add to the Perrottet clan. Unlike his wife, the Premier seems to think seven is enough. When asked if he wants any more, he laughs. “I’m good. I am content and happy.”