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NSW Treasurer Matt Kean and Premier Dominic Perrottet.Credit:Kate Geraghty

The weeks leading up to this Saturday’s Victorian election serve to highlight exactly the sort of campaign NSW must avoid next year. TheVictorian battle has been ugly, to say the least. Both leaders are the subject of ongoing or potential inquiries by the state’s anti-corruption commission. Policy has been thin on the ground,little attention has been paid to the state’s alarming fiscal position (Victoria has the highest debt in proportional terms of all the states),and ambulance service and hospital emergency departments are a basket case.

Put simply,theHerald believes Victorian voters are in the unenviable position of being forced to choose between an arrogant premier who does not deserve to be re-elected,and a deeply flawed opposition leader who does not deserve to win.

The dynamics north of the border are radically different. Perrottet has been a consultative,accessible and energetic premier,andMinns has reinvigorated Labor by uniting the party and having the smarts to pursue sensible,centrist positions on most issues. The choice here is much,much more palatable.

But after a decade of merry-go-round premiers under the Coalition’s reign,theHerald believes stability should be an important theme of next year’s poll.

If Minns wins the March election he would become the fifth NSW premier in 10 years. A Perrottet win would also not necessarily guarantee stability on Macquarie Street.

As theHerald’s state political editor Alexandra Smithwrote last week,the relationship between Perrottet and the deputy NSW Liberal Party leader – Treasurer Matt Kean – is also largely one of convenience. Perrottet needs Kean’s moderate faction to remain in power over the long term and Kean needs Perrottet to be successful to prevent the Liberal Party and members of his moderate faction from suffering a heavy defeat at the March election.

Tensions between leaders and their treasurers are not new and can sometimes lead to positive outcomes - the most obvious example being the partnership between Bob Hawke and Paul Keating,which produced ambitious policy reform despite behind-the-scenes drama towards the end of the relationship.

Can Perrottet and Kean genuinely tell voters in March that a re-elected Coalition leadership team would remain the same for the subsequent four-year term? MPs who know the true dynamic between both men say privately that an enduring partnership is unlikely. They also say Kean’s federal ambitions could also be the catalyst for upheaval in a new term.

Voters got a glimpse into the uneasy partnership last week when Kean made no attempt to hide his fury over Perrottet’s appointment of former Snowy Hydro boss Paul Broad as a special adviser on energy and infrastructure while the treasurer was overseas. The appointment raised eyebrows given Broad had dubbed Kean’s energy reforms “fundamentally flawed”.

Voters are entitled to understand the dynamic between Liberal leader and deputy. Perrottet and Kean should be upfront about what a fifth Coalition term would look like,and whether the prospect of stability is realistic or simply a pipe-dream.

Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week.Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.

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