It’s hard to imagine many inside the New South Wales government were particularly upset with veteran Nationals backbencher Geoff Provest when he aimed both barrels at the prime minister over his response to the state’s flood disaster this week.
Hardly the state government’s most prominent attack dog, Provest did not miss in his assessment of Scott Morrison after his north coast electorate of Tweed was inexplicably excluded from extra disaster funding announced by the prime minister last week.
The decision was “deplorable”, Provest said, adding that he was personally “disgusted with the prime minister” and would struggle to vote for him at the upcoming federal election.
“There’s a real venom out there directed at the prime minister that he doesn’t understand what’s occurring on the ground,” he told ABC radio.
The backstory, if you missed it, was that when Morrison announced extra disaster funding payments for flood-affected individuals last week, it was restricted to areas surrounding Lismore, the Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley. All of them are in the federal seat of Page, held by the Nationals. Coincidentally, the areas excluded - Tweed, Ballina and Byron - all happened to be in the federal seat of Richmond, held by Labor.
By Thursday afternoon the feds had backflipped, with minister for emergency management, Bridget McKenzie, announcing that following an assessment by the National Recovery and Resilience Agency the grants would be extended across the north of the state.
But the saga fit neatly with the now-familiar impression of the Morrison government as either missing in action during a crisis, or else obsessed with creating political advantage wherever possible.
“This is like a remake of the bushfires,” Provest helpfully added.
Which, for the NSW government, may be the perfect comparison point – in that it’s a low bar that’s easy to outperform.
It’s been clear this week that the state Coalition is keen to distance itself from its federal counterparts, with reports suggesting that senior NSW government MPs were frustrated with Canberra delaying new support packages - something Morrison denied - and that requests for Australian defence force support were ignored.
It’s not a new dynamic. In a speech to economics thinktank CEDA last month, Perrottet joked about his frequent run-ins with the federal government, saying he had “got myself in trouble going after the commonwealth government at points in time”.
“I’ve promised the prime minister I will deal with him via text message [rather than] through a public forum,” he quipped.
More recently, the treasurer, Matt Kean, has taken on that role, criticising the federal government for failing to provide business support during Omicron, clashing with the energy minister, Angus Taylor, and suggesting that he supported a federal Icac.
But it’s a particularly useful tactic when NSW’s own flood response has not been without fault, including revelations the State Emergency Service had warned about the impact of budget cuts on its capability in the northern rivers and questions about what exactly it is Resilience NSW does with its $1.4bn budget.
Indeed, a year out from the next state election, things are hardly running smoothly in Macquarie Street. The government is grappling with a protracted industrial dispute with the state’s rail union, and knows more is coming down the line as teachers’ and nurses’ unions flex their muscles in a bid to do away with the increasingly controversial 2.5% wage cap on public sector workers.
Add to that the ballooning costs on its centrepiece infrastructure commitments, teacher shortages and increasingly regular grants scandals, and it’s little wonder MPs such as Catherine Cusack and Don Harwin are headed for the exit.
But unlike Morrison – who seems preternaturally inclined to perceived gaffes during emergencies – Perrottet’s response to the floods has been both pragmatic and (it feels weird to have to write this as a point of contrast to other politicians) human.
He spent a significant amount of time in the flood-affected areas immediately following the disaster, while acknowledging the shortcomings of the response and quickly announcing a review into why so many people had been left to fend for themselves.
And the relief packages announced by his government – such as the rental support announced last week – have won him some unlikely friends during the crisis.
“I’m not a natural ally to the ultra-right wing of the Liberal party, but he’s been amazing,” the Ballina Greens MP, Tamara Smith, said this week.
“He hasn’t been playing politics, which is refreshing. I think there is a real intention and will to do the right thing.”
Which isn’t a blank cheque, of course. Smith also questioned Resilience NSW’s capacity to actually deliver support into the affected communities, and noted that the real “danger zone” would come in a few months’ time when the news cycle had moved on.
But as politics in NSW enters an unofficial shutdown while Perrottet takes parental leave and the opposition steps back to give free air to its federal colleagues ahead of a likely election in May, the NSW government can be satisfied that, the more it is held up against the Coalition in Canberra, the better it looks.
