Dominic Perrottet is the new Premier of NSW
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has won a NSW Liberal party room vote for the position of party leader, making him the next Premier of New South Wales. Perrottet won with 39 votes to Planning Minister Rob Stokes’ five, and Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres was elected unopposed as deputy Liberal leader.
The vote followed Gladys Berejiklian’s resignation as party leader on Friday, which itself followed the announcement of an ICAC investigation into the question of whether Berejiklian breached public trust during her secret relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire.
Perottet will be the 46th Premier of NSW, and the fourth Liberal Premier since 2011, succeeding Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird, and Gladys Berejiklian. Perrottet is from the right-wing of the Liberal Party, and has been endorsed by former Prime Minister John Howard.
Perrottet represents the electoral district of Epping, which includes the suburbs of Beecroft, Cheltenham, Cherrybrook, North Epping, as well as parts of Epping, Carlingford, Castle Hill, Dural, Eastwood, Pennant Hills and West Pennant Hills. Perottet himself was raised in West Pennant Hills and went to school in Dural and Castle Hill before attending the University of Sydney, where he was active in student politics.
Perrottet is a devout Catholic, and has said of his religious views, “I think having a Christian faith is part of who I am and inspires me to make a difference wherever I go.” In 2019, he was the most senior member of the NSW government to oppose the decriminalisation of abortion. Despite this, reports have suggested he will support a conscience vote on the issue of voluntary assisted dying.
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s party room vote, a 2016 Facebook post Perrottet made following the successful election of Donald Trump was widely circulated. In the post, Perrottet welcomed Trump’s win as “a victory for people who have been taken for granted by the elites”, going on to write, “If you support stronger borders, you are not a racist. If you want a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, you are not a homophobe.”
Despite this, in a speech given later that year, he also criticised what he identified as the failure of mainstream political parties to stop the rise of populists like Trump. He criticised the Republican Party for embracing an “elite big business agenda” that had “shut out their base” and failed to respond to the “growing disillusionment around them”.
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