Andrew Bolt: Left-leaning Liberal Matt Kean now a warrior for Labor

Matt Kean’s noisy crusade against Katherine Deves has been a gift to Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who has made a powerful election pitch by saying the Liberals are tearing themselves apart.

Who needs Labor, when the Liberals have their own Matt Kean to blow up their election campaign?

Kean, the NSW Treasurer, on Tuesday gave Labor its biggest free kick of the campaign by smearing one of the Liberals’ own candidates, making false claims and calling her “not fit for office”.

Truly, Kean is one of those Left-wing Liberals who have made their party a comfort to its enemies and an embarrassment to its friends.

Kean’s target was Katherine Deves, who is trying to win back Warringah, the seat now held by climate extremist Zali Steggall.

Deves has outraged the Left by campaigning against trans women competing in sport against women who were, well, born women.

Katherine Deves has outraged the Left.

Polls suggest that she’s hardly on her own in thinking it’s unfair or even dangerous to girls and women to have trans athletes – often bigger bodied – compete against then.

A recent poll showed two-thirds of Australians were against it.

It’s true that Deves, a lawyer, has sometimes expressed herself offensively. She’s since apologised.

But Kean hopped on the ABC to repeat a common falsehood used by journalists to damn her and shout down her essential argument: “She also said that half of all female trans people are sex offenders. That’s just bigotry.”

Kean was quoting just half of one of Deves’ since-deleted text, and out of context.

She’d in fact referred to research that half (actually 40 per cent) of trans females in British jails were – on the partial evidence available – sex offenders, compared to fewer than 20 per cent of male prisoners.

Will Matt Kean apologise to Katherine Deves? Picture: Jeremy Piper

She clearly did not mean half of all trans people were sex offenders. So will Kean apologise to her?

And will he apologise to the Liberals?

Kean said Deves had to be sacked because she’s hurting his fellow Left-wing Liberals in federal seats – MPs like Trent Zimmerman.

But Kean’s noisy crusade did even worse damage, and not just by feeding the controversy and creating damaging headlines for his party.

Once again a Liberal Leftist was legitimising Labor’s attacks on the Liberals, just as Zimmerman did in attacking Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s failed attempt to guarantee religious freedom.

Kean also legitimised attacks on Morrison himself, who defended Deves from the cancel culture and refused to sack her.

What a gift to Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who made a powerful pitch, saying Australians wanting stability should vote Labor, because the Liberals were again tearing themselves apart.

Matt Kean, what a mighty warrior – for Labor.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Left-leaning Liberal Matt Kean now a warrior for Labor