Listening to the New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, speaking on Friday, you’d be forgiven for thinking Victoria was a new member of his cabinet.
Perrottet said the NSW government had “worked alongside” Victoria to deliver thousands of rapid antigen tests before schools resume next week. They were “the only states in the country” that could boast as much, he said.
On the business support package likely to be announced in the coming days Perrottet again referenced Victoria – the NSW treasurer, Matt Kean, was working “very closely” with his southern counterparts “because we’re in a very, very similar situation,” he said.
The bonhomie is apparently shared. On Thursday the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the two premiers “work together as close as we can”.
For anyone who lived in NSW or Victoria through the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, this developing bromance between leaders from opposite ends of the ideological divide is a jarring shift.
Despite cooperating in March 2020 to pressure the Morrison government on school closures, Andrews and the former NSW premier Gladys Berejilkian, spent much of the nation’s Delta outbreak trading barbs, as the politics of border closures, lockdowns and vaccine allocations became an ongoing pandemic theatre.
But a much closer working relationship has formed between Andrews and Perrottet during the latest wave of the pandemic.
“The dynamic has entirely changed,” a Victorian government source told the Guardian.
“They have a completely different relationship. [They] text each other all the time and swap ideas. They genuinely like each other.”
Blossoming friendship aside, there are practical benefits to the newfound closeness. In December, Perrottet gave a speech at the National Press Club in which he described his frustration after attending his first meeting of the former Council of Australian Governments as NSW treasurer.
“When I left I turned to my chief of staff and said ‘well that was a complete waste of time’,” he said in the speech.
It prompted him to launch, alongside Victorian treasurer, Tim Pallas, the board of state and territory treasurers, which he said “made the states a more potent force in shaping federal financial relations again”.
“We realised that the federal government could take a ‘divide and conquer’ approach to these meetings – because we weren’t working together,” Perrottet said.
“Rather than picking states off, the commonwealth government on many issues is now confronted with a strong unified voice.”
Now premier, multiple sources told the Guardian that Perrottet was playing the same game at a higher level.
“In one sense it’s an indication of two leaders genuinely doing what they think is right during a pandemic, and in those cases it doesn’t matter what political party you belong to,” one senior NSW minister said.
“But I think it also goes back to the strong working relationship Dom had with Tim Pallas, and the fact he realised you can leverage the commonwealth and you can caucus against the commonwealth if you work together.”
Former Labor campaign strategist turned pollster Kos Samaras, said the tactic could also have political upside.
“The prime minister can’t say no to them when they’re working together and the voters will reward them for it because they hated the tribal politics in the earlier stage of the pandemic,” he said.
“Didn’t matter whether it was Liberal or Labor doing it, voters on both sides of the Murray hated it.”
Samaras noted Andrews is also able to blunt any political attacks by the state’s Coalition opposition by following Perrottet’s lead.
The improved relations also come down to personalities. As premier, Berejiklian was famous for her rigid approach to politics, and many of her own colleagues in NSW grew frustrated with a perceived unwillingness to change tack on policies that weren’t working.
Their offices are also said to enjoy a more consultative relationship. Communication between Andrews’ and Berejiklian’s senior staff became “virtually nonexistent” during 2021, a Victorian source said.
Several sources said the relationship between Andrews and Perrottet formed around the time the Victoria-NSW border reopened in early November.
Both have since reintroduced restrictions in response to the Omicron outbreak, brought forward access to booster vaccine doses by a month and released near-identical return to school plans on 23 January.
They are also in agreement about redefining “fully vaccinated” to mean three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, with Perrottet saying on Friday that a proposal taken to national cabinet by Andrews this week “makes sense”.
Samaras said despite appearances the duo are pragmatists rather than ideologues, and having accepted they cannot stop Covid-19, they’re now working together to manage it.
“Both premiers have clearly made a decision they’re going to help their constituencies live with this virus,” he said.
“That’s not saying it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be hard, the health system will be continuously under stress, the supply chain issues are ongoing and we’ve got winter coming but it’s easier when you have a collective approach to these problems.”
