It took just three days for NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to lay down his marker. With locked-down Sydneysiders on the brink of getting a first taste of (relative) freedom in months, Perrottet decided to tinker with former premier Gladys Berejiklian’s roadmap.
From Monday, household gathering limits will double to 10 people, with caps on outdoor gatherings, weddings and funerals raised. Once the state reaches 80% double-dosed, indoor masks won’t be required in offices, and nightclubs will reopen without dancing.
Depending on who you ask, the changes are either relatively minor adjustments which will have little impact, or big changes likely to cause a dangerous rise in cases. Either way, it’s an unsurprising move for long-time lockdown sceptic Perrottet, and a clear sign of his government’s shifting priorities. Chief health officer Kerry Chant, absent from yesterday’s press conference, reportedly did not approve the revised roadmap, although Deputy Premier Paul Toole denies this.
“It’s not just a health crisis, it’s an economic crisis too,” Perrottet told reporters yesterday.
The premier’s decision only makes sense if viewed purely through the prism of a more libertarian-minded conservative wanting to quickly take ownership of the top job, and signal his firm support for the business community.
But politically it’s a high-risk move. The Berejiklian reopening plan already had broad public support. Now, if the more pessimistic projections about case numbers and hospitalisations do — for once — come true, Perrottet will shoulder the blame. It’s even more risky given his government holds a single-seat majority and faces three byelections, likely in December (albeit in electorates it should retain).
And beyond the early, turbulent months of the reopening lies a federal election, where Prime Minister Scott Morrison is betting on a feeling of relaxed and comfortable post-COVID normal in NSW to convince voters to give him another term. Despite their differences, Morrison probably wanted Berejiklian in charge when he went to the polls, with the former premier’s popularity a big asset.
Instead he needs Perrottet to maintain voter goodwill toward the Liberal brand. The campaign will also stress-test the relationship between the two men. Much has been made of the prime minister swearing at Perrottet over the phone, and the new premier claiming he didn’t want national cabinet to be a “kumbaya session”.
On paper, Morrison and Perrottet seem very similar: both deeply religious men who have spent decades knowing nothing other than the machinery of the Liberal Party. But that history has meant they fall on different sides of arcane, simmering factional divides in the right of the NSW Liberals.
One of Morrison’s key lieutenants is immigration minister and recent cabinet appointee Alex Hawke, who helped run numbers for the PM during the 2018 Liberal leadership spill. Hawke’s own factional history is key. In the mid-2000s he helped the Christian right wrestle control over the NSW Liberals from the moderates, backed by his mentor David Clarke, a deeply socially conservative MLC. Once Hawke won preselection for Mitchell, in Sydney’s north-western Bible belt, he and Clarke had a very public falling out, which saw Hawke carve out a third faction: the centre right.
Perrottet, from the old hard right, would become Clarke’s next protégé. Perrottet’s own preselection in 2010 for the safe seat of Castle Hill (which overlaps Hawke’s electorate) became a proxy war in the battle between the two factions. When Perrottet tried to jump seats again in 2018, he lost a battle with Hawke’s man Ray Williams.
Morrison historically tried to play the hard right and the moderates off, once famously attending both hard right and moderate factional dinners in 2009. Now, Morrison and Hawke are leaders of the centre right, a faction that only formally exists in NSW. While the Morrison-Hawke right is powerful in Canberra, they’re a marginalised force on Macquarie Street. In 2018, Perrottet and Treasurer Matt Kean, leader of the moderates, made a deal to squeeze out the centre right.
None of this means Morrison and Perrottet won’t get on. They’re conservative, Christian Liberals after all. But there’s history and layers to the relationship.
If Perrottet botches the reopening and leaves Morrison to fight an election against the backdrop of a groaning hospital system, rolling restrictions, and a further fractured federation, it might start to unravel.
Perrottet has demonstrated he is nothing more than a prattling fool. He has a very dubious record as treasurer and the Liberals are a disgrace for electing him. His unlocking acceleration runs a god almighty risk for the citizens of NSW which is absolutely terrifying if you live here. I am sick of factional f’wits. The trouble with the religious right is that they think they are blessed and chosen and can never make a mistake. iCare demonstrated that Perrottet has exactly this problem.
ICare and the disgrace of the rail set-up and the so-called surplus which was not.
“If Perrotet botches the reopening…?
He already has, so it didn’t take long.
Teachers are furious at not finding out about children returning all at once, until yesterday’s News announcement.
Dr Chant has today, vaguely referred to a “New strain of the Delta variant in Sydney” (per Guardian Australia, below)- But, as happens constantly, it’s not newsworthy enough for a Headline, but just added as an afterthought – because, Heaven forbid, people start to wonder just how sensible Perrotet’s Reopening Plan, really is?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/08/confusion-over-regional-nsw-day-trips-ahead-of-sydney-reopening-from-covid-lockdown?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Home quarantine seems a probable suspect for the new delta strain as have yet to hear of any provisions in place to ensure we won’t import new variants . . .
Also sun flares are a risk.
Seems you’re a fan of delta . . .
Didn’t you get the memo?
It’s lamda & mu that’s all the go!
You probably, think that, you mean ‘sun dogs’.
Sydney (at least their leaders) have made themselves the lab rat in the Covid-recovery experiment. With most other states holding their own line, the rest of the country gets to see if the NSW re-emergence works or not. Vic are the collateral damage of NSW premiers not doing their job properly, so they don’t get to sit this one out unfortunately. Thanks Gladys.
If it does got well, and i hope it does, then it’s proof that it’s safe, and Morrison will probably cruise to another election win on the back of it….despite everything that’s happened over the last few years.
If it doesn’t work, and chaos ensues, then it’ll give the remaining 10 million australians a chance to rethink tactics, and Morrison will have to revert back to “war with China” or whatever his spin team can suggest.
Sydney’s egocentricity is actually working in the favour of the rest of Oz for once! (apologies once again to Vic)
Well put.
One can also view Sydney/NSW and national politics revolving round the LNP, conservative Christianity and national media messaging (7, 9 & NewsCorp), but this does not reflect mainstream Australia, and seemingly in competition or lock step with QLD conservatives?
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.
Schisms between so called christian groups run deeper than those between different religions.
The schisms between Christian groups pales into insignificance when compared to the schisms between Muslim groups.
The only doctrinal difference is the 12th (Hidden) Caliph and even that is minor, never a cause of strife prior to the 20thC.
(Fun fact, the Druze (Arabic for 12th) are an amalgam of nazarene & meccan traditions – hence cursed by all.)
Until Shaitan’s Curse (oil) gave the West a monetary reason to meddle, the ME was mostly shia.
Only the better-off, better-off – aka ruling class – are sunni and that is thanks to wahhabism, encourage, abetted, aided and financed by Aramco revenues.
“ME was mostly shia”
thanks, I didn’t know that, I thought Arabia itself had always been largely Sunni.
Not even Saudi is Sunni by area, though it is the majority of the overall population of the Empty (sic?!) Quarter.
What was once, named (inexplicably?) Arabia Felix is now the Yemen… not a lot of happiness there currently thanx to the hegemon to which we’ve attached our lips.
The east of Saudi is shia majority and comprises most, of the most, oil rich areas.
Typical anti-muslim hysteria. You sound like a mixture of Pauline and Lambie.
I suppose that I could argue dieter that your post reflects a kind of pro-Muslim hysteria. What do you think, dieter?
As I said in my subsequent post …..
Quick, look over there. A straw man!
I was only responding to Mike’s post,Chips, (and very politely too, I might add). I presume that that is a legitimate exercise here?
I notice that have a net count of (only!) 2 detractors at the time of writing. Predictably, as with any news outlet that tends toward the left, the Islamophiles predominate. You can ‘go to town’ on the Christians in general, and the Catholics in particular, (and I will be there leading the charge with them) but for some utterly inexplicable reason, any discussion, let alone criticism of the Religion of Peace, is absolutely off-limits. Just why the left is so mesmerized by this religion is one of the mysteries of the universe for me.
Anyway, having made that point, (don’t worry, I know that it will be lost on most) I would like to support the comment I made in my previous post by providing a link to an article from The Conversation written by Robert Manne in 2016, which I believe supports my claim that the schisms between Muslim groups is very significant.
https://theconversation.com/book-extract-the-mind-of-the-islamic-state-68910
(I also fully expect that many readers will have preconceived prejudices that will prevent them from acknowledging the existence of these aforementioned schisms, even after reading Robert’s article.)
Not relevant to this article, was the problem I had with your original post.
Your comment is absolutely fair enough, Scotty. I understand what you are saying Scotty and I do take your point. However, I do feel that it was relevant to Mike Smith’s post.
You need to learn some history.
Start with the 30 Year War, and work backwards.
Nah, start with Nebuchadnezzar transporting Judah to work the fields of Babylon, ca 600BC.
As usual, they began assimilating and harking to other gods so the Levites, having thereby learned to write, took down all the old stories to try to bind them together and make them obedient – hence the numerous contradictions and different origin tales, from “In the beginning was the Word…”.
All three Judeo religions are full of schisms. The answer why is blatantly obvious if you take your blinkers off.
How is that remotely relevant to this article.
By the principle of bothsiderism.
The Christian Infiltrators who expressed supreme authority to steal land from First Nation now possess supreme power in NSW and Federal governments. The LNP voting sheeple have been seduced by the propaganda of religion and by the fear heavily embedded in its discourse.
A critical mental function for instinctual survival seems to have disappeared in Christians and humans of similar persuasions and these people are at risk of displaying behavior’s related to early onset dementia. If Pentecostal is indicated the decline over the 6 months post diagnoses is rapid leading to tertiary palliative care and assessment reports every 4 weeks.