The Perrottet government in NSW has plainly been caught out by the shift in public and media sentiment over what used to be a normal part of politics — pork-barrelling and jobs for mates. That shift is almost entirely down to Scott Morrison, who as prime minister presided over the elevation of pork-barrelling and jobbery to a level so egregiously in violation of traditional norms that it began shifting votes, even among the politically disengaged.
But that doesn’t explain exactly why Stuart Ayres, and his colleagues, didn’t see the appointment of John Barilaro — a notorious pork-barreller himself — to a $500,000 a year New York job as likely to offend voters and spark a media frenzy. Or why they thought what turns out to have been a fairly pathetic cover-up by Ayres was ever going to resist the most basic scrutiny.
Even after being forced to resign, Ayres maintains he had no role in Barilaro’s appointment. It’s a claim that borders on the delusional, given the detailed evidence of his former secretary Amy Brown yesterday, and copious documentary evidence that at multiple points in the process he played an important role in favour of Barilaro. His defence has consisted entirely of simply repeating that he wasn’t involved, even as the evidence mounted up that he was. As a political tactic, it hasn’t fared much better than the appalling efforts of Coalition backbenchers on the Legislative Council committee to smear successful candidate Jenny West.
What was going through Ayres’ mind, and those of his colleagues, who were aware of the looming appointment of Barilaro? This was an appointment that even a senior public servant knew was politically problematic, such that Brown called the head of Premier and Cabinet about it, and expressed that she was “nervous” about it to Ayres.
Public servants usually leave the political judgments to the politicians, but even Brown knew this reeked. Why did Perrottet and his team think it was ever going to fly, or that their line that Barilaro had simply succeeded through a standard public service recruitment exercise was ever going to stand up?
These are political professionals, whose whole career is based on understanding the electoral mood, who have at their disposal a wide array of tools for reading that mood. But a public servant knew better than them that Barilaro was toxic. In fact, any random person pulled off Macquarie St could have told them that.
This is what happens when you’ve been in government for a long time, when no one is around who remembers not having the comforts and ease of incumbency, when being in power seems the natural state of affairs that will never change, when taxpayer resources and the offices of state come to seem assets to be disposed of as a political party sees fit, without reference to the public interest.
The NSW Liberals have the extra challenge that NSW Labor have been easybeats since they were thankfully ousted from office in 2011. That’s now changed. The state opposition looks substantial and credible. Generational change has removed the foul stench of Obeid and other crooks. The Legislative Council inquiry dissection of the Barilaro scandal has been led with diligence and forensic skill by opposition treasury spokesman Daniel Mookhey, who also impressed with his prosecution of the TAHE scandal last year.
Perrottet has been at pains to present not as a three-term government seeking a fourth but as a reinvigorated, young government under new management, which understands the electorate’s concerns about climate, cost of living and the status of women. In Matt Kean, Perrottet has a treasurer who can effectively pursue those agendas and place them within a coherent story of government. But Ayres’ actions and the failure of Perrottet and his brains trust to spot the danger belies the fresh image, every bit as much as it wrecked coverage of Kean’s excellent budget in June.
As the Morrison, previous NSW Labor and Howard governments all demonstrated, staying in office for multiple terms distorts your political judgment and understanding of what is electorally acceptable. The result is often a kind of paralysis, in which incumbents know that they’re in deep trouble, but can’t muster the energy or ideas to change course, or leadership, and just end up hoping their opponents will find another way to lose an election.
The Perrottet government, at the tail end of the best NSW government since the Greiner years, can’t put too much stock in NSW Labor losing again. The opposition is now odds-on to replace an increasingly shambolic outfit next March.
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Thank you Bernard for the ending qualification that this best “NSW” government in a while, as residents from other states and territories are unlikely to have much envy for this or other recent NSW administrations. “Failed State” may be a more appropriate description.
The ‘best’ NSW government? That says a great deal about one’s priorities doesn’t it, Bernard? More land cleared, more public facilities transferred into private hands, more appalling over-development to favour anyone who can make a big fat political donation, more sleaze, more failures in public education, more Covid, ……. and isn’t there still a great big hole in the ground that used to be a football stadium? That’s one of St Gladys’ good works.
That doesn’t sound particularly meritorious to me.
I’m with Bizzybags: epic fail on nearly all fronts.
The “it looks bad in hindsight” cluelessness from Perrottet down is the problem. Everyone involved would know how it would have looked, so we can only assume that they thought they could get away with it. Reluctantly acknowledging the error in hindsight speaks to a contempt for the electorate and the purpose of the office they serve.
If they came out and said “this was the price we pay to keep a political alliance”, it may not have gone over any better, but at least it would be a more honest presentation than this reluctant whoopsie moment we have now.
“Everyone involved would know how it would have looked, so we can only assume that they thought they could get away with it. Reluctantly acknowledging the error in hindsight speaks to a contempt for the electorate and the purpose of the office they serve.”
If we’re prepared to be honest with ourselves, this is because the voters have been turning a blind eye to these behaviours or complaining about them but never acting at the ballot box.
The evidence of history, experience and certainty of the complicity of the cowardly meretricious mediocrities of the media minions?
Just guessing, of course…
I had to look up meretricious.
Now I agree.
I thought it was some derivative of meritorious which confused me, so I’m glad you commented and I looked it up too! lol! Now I agree too!
What was going through Ayres’ mind, and those of his colleagues, who were aware of the looming appointment of Barilaro?
Maybe they just hoped it would all go through, and after a bit of hostile pushback, the discussion would die down and the fickle public would move on to the next topic-de-jour. After all, the thought of having Barilaro thousands of miles away in NY, being paid $500,000 pa to do SFA, would have been cheap at the price and had great political appeal to those who were aware that his every action has been so deplorable.
Out of sight, out of mind they would have hoped.
And such costs as were involved, would have been sheeted home to senior women public servants. How good is LNP government?
It’s almost certain that the idea was to get him comfy, far far away for fear of what buckets he could/would tip on the rest of them if not paid off to his own satisfaction.
And he may yet tip those buckets – which may be enough to lose the LNP government in NSW. Nose cutting – face spited.
They’ve already lost it and many,many people knew that Barilaro was a spiv. That’s why it blew up in their snouts.
That was my conclusion. Just what dynamite is the Barrel of Larfs sitting on now? We can only hope it goes off and spreads the manure all over the rotten barstewards.
Indeed it’s very hard to quantify the price you have to pay for a dud Nat but LNP are willing keep fu n ding it?
The LNP may have been willing to keep funding it but they forgot that they were using the public dollar to do so and that the public wanted some value for their $500,000 pa plus expenses.
They really had no idea just how ticked off the community had become by the rorts and pork-barrelling carried out at Federal level by the Libs and Nationals aka the COALition. It’s quite possibly only dawning on them over the last 2 weeks.
Yes I agree that was a factor – there was no realisation, at both state and federal levels, that a tipping point had been reached and that the public’s tolerance of such egregious greed would suddenly find its limit.
Some weirdo is downvoting your posting simple facts.
It was obviously more important to them to get rid of Barilaro – giving him what he asked for – than worry about the public interest in NSW. What was going on in their minds was pure politics.
Every time we find ourselves thinking and/or saying something is largely Morrison’s fault, we need to think about how it is that we let Morrison’s behaviour go on and on, and get worse and worse. If we don’t recognize our own complicity, we will just make the same mistakes with the next super duper manipulator who comes out way.
How did you demonstrate your complicity?
I didn’t hound my Liberal member enough. I let things get really bad before I started objecting via email, and I never had the courage to front personally and ask the hard questions.
“We” didn’t give the imprimatur to Morrison’s, nor Abbot’s nor Howard’s behaviour. Perhaps you did, but, though living in a heretofore ‘safe’ Nats seat, I have never voted in 50 years for the cons, because it has always been as plain as the nose on your face what they have always been up to, reinforced by Whitlam’s dismissal.
All 3 levels of government have been dominated by the Nats, who basically did nothing until forced, and only then by pork-barreling.
So don’t come the hogwash about all the punters being responsible; only the purblind rusted-ons, too dumb to see they were voting against their own interests, inflicted these blights on us.
Sure, a case can be made for the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government being sacked, but in favour of a leading contender along with Morrison and Billy MacMahon for the worst PM in Australia’s history ?
The purblind should have seen the light after Turnbull’s cowardice got him sacked, and never installed the mendacious, manipulative right-wing religious nut bag Morrison.
So don’t list me and the rest of similar thinkers in your list of false equivalences.