It’s easy to see the sudden rush to female leaders of Liberal parties around Australia as a desperation strategy – a kind of “let’s try this, at least we will look different”.
Kellie Sloane’s stewardship of the Liberals in New South Wales will need to be much more than better presentation – because there is much more at stake.
If the Liberal party cannot sell itself to NSW and to an aspirational capitalist city like Sydney, then its future is grim indeed.
From day one Sloane will be navigating a particularly treacherous internal political landscape within her own party and with junior Coalition partner the NSW Nationals, while dealing with some of the biggest policy challenges of our time: climate change, a housing crisis, conserving our environment and the pressures of a growing mega city.
The responsibility on her shoulders is arguably greater than other state Liberal leaders because the NSW Liberals still claim to be a broad church in the tradition of Robert Menzies.
The claim to that mantle is shaky.
The NSW party membership is below 10,000 and its members are ageing, meaning the party risks being out of step with real Australia. Every political party also needs a strong membership to win: to fundraise, to staff booths and fuel ideas.
Sloane’s first challenge is to distinguish the NSW Liberal brand from that of her Canberra colleagues, whose self-immolation has now reached farcical levels.
The departing leader Mark Speakman made no bones about the cost, pointing out that he had been within a few percentage points of the Minns Labor government until the Liberals’ thumping federal election loss in May and the protracted period of public brawling over climate change policy that has followed.
In contrast, the NSW Liberals confirmed their commitment to net zero by 2050 this week and Sloane also confirmed that the interim targets – including a 70% reduction in greenhouse gases from 2005 levels by 2035 – are also still in place.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, Sloane attempted to play down the division, saying: “It wouldn’t be the first time, you know, a state party had a difference with their federal colleagues over a policy position.”
But climate change policy is a big one. What the federal government does directly impacts on state plans.
Sloane also insists the NSW Liberals remain committed to renewables rollout, augmented by gas, and to the phase-out of coal-fired power in NSW.
“The facts are that our coal-fired stations aren’t going to last beyond 2033. Eraring [power station] has been extended, and it may well need to be extended further,” she said.
“But that doesn’t mean that we’re not focused on the practical considerations that are causing a lot of concern on the ground right now. We need to be absolutely focused on people’s concerns about energy bills, around the transition when it comes to renewables, with the rollout of renewables in regional communities in particular.
“It’s creating a situation of haves and have nots in a lot of communities and our Nationals colleagues, our Liberal colleagues in regional NSW are seeing that first-hand, seeing the pain in their communities.”
Perhaps Sloane can find a policy formula to both meet the targets and make the rollout more palatable to rural communities, without actually slowing it down, scaring away investment or pissing off her Nationals partners. Easier said than done.
With Sydney house prices predicted to continue to rise, boosting housing supply is the top priority for both sides of politics in NSW.
But how and where? On this there are significant differences between the major parties.
Labor has spelled out its priorities: medium density and high rise around train stations, as quickly as possible.
Housing around Sydney Harbour in the city’s affluent inner suburbs. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
This will see much greater development in Liberal heartland suburbs that have resisted it for decades, like the north shore, the northern beaches and parts of the eastern suburbs.
Sloane got off to a shaky start on her commitment to increasing housing supply when in June she told a community forum that she opposed medium density at Rose Bay in her electorate of Vaucluse, arguing it could not be considered a town centre because it didn’t have “a decent supermarket”.
She’s also been somewhat cautious about Labor’s plan for 10,000 new high rise homes near a new Woollahra station, also in her seat, although at her first press conference as leader she said she would support it provided it was properly planned.
Speaking with the Guardian, Sloane sought to distinguish the Liberal approach to housing: “I think there’s a broad view, and one I agree with, that we need to get on with building more housing in this state,” she said.
“But the Coalition wants to build communities and homes, and I think that distinction is important, because what we’ve seen with a number of Labor’s proposals is that they haven’t been well thought out, there haven’t been business cases behind them and the community don’t understand what infrastructure will be provided to support growing communities.”
She accused the premier of having “thought bubbles” like building a whole new suburb on Rose Hill racecourse (now dropped). She said failing to meet housing accord targets, and failing to develop business cases, meant Labor was losing its social licence for its plans.
Sloane said her party would be far more focused on planning communities and on the infrastructure needed to support them.
The only problem is that planning takes time – and that’s exactly why Labor has resorted to more blunt force policies to drive density in places that have resisted it.
And it’s still running well behind the targets.
Speakman committed to building more metros to serve Sydney, but has not yet outlined where. Transport for NSW has outlined possible future projects in a medium term plan but none are yet costed.
Sloane said she was still to get up to speed on metros and how they would be funded under a Liberal government, but she assured the Guardian that they would be responsibly funded.
The related issue is privatisation. The previous Coalition government paid for the metros through “asset recycling” – selling off mature government assets such as the electricity poles and wires and power stations.
The options for privatisation are thinner now. The government has legislated to block the sale of Sydney Water, and other government-owned toll roads, such as the western harbour tunnel and the Harbour Bridge, will be soon used to fund toll subsidies to western Sydney.