Although Barilaro has decided not to take the job,there are still serious questions about how he came to be appointed. The citizens of NSW deserve answers.
Perrottet has also shown some nerve in standing up toV’landys’ demands to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars for the reconstruction of NRL stadiums.
V’landys has threatened to move the NRL grand final to Brisbane if the premier does not accept a set of demands in the next few days.
These tactics are typical of V’landys,a cunning and at times bruising operator. TheHeraldfinds itself in rare agreement with broadcasterAlan Jones who told reporter Michael Koziol that V’landys “sometimes thinks he runs NSW … Someone’s got to tell V’landys he’s not the premier.”
He has forgotten that fact,both at the NRL and in his role as chief executive of Racing NSW. V’landys was appointed to the latter role by a board that answers to the government. V’landys also sits on the board. What other member of a government board would be permitted to so publicly condemn the government’s leaders?
V’landys says he had a “handshake agreement” with Perrottet to fund the stadiums but now says a handshake from the premier is worth very little. The NRL has a right to feel disappointed the projects won’t go ahead but a handshake is no basis on which to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars.
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The premier has other far more urgent priorities to consider,such as repaying debt the state ran up during the pandemic (which will rise from $53.5 billion at the end of June to $115 billion in 2026) and caring for the thousands of people in the Northern Rivers region still recovering from devastating floods.
The stadiums are a low priority against that backdrop and any future decision to fund them should be taken after rigorous consideration of a business case and the interests of the state.
Perrottet has just eight months to put his stamp on the government before the state election. These two decisions will cause him grief in certain quarters but voters will accept tough action if they can see it is in the wider public interest and based on principle.