NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has promoted one more woman to cabinet as his team get ready for the 2023 state election.
After just over two months in the job, Perrottet has totally reshuffled the cabinet by adding nine first-time ministers.
Seven of the 26 cabinet ministers will be women which is one more woman than we had under Glady Berejiklian’s leadership.
While this does sound like good news, it also looks a lot like virtue signalling by the Premier in order to sway voters.
The Premier has now added three new female ministers to the cabinet since taking over.
Upper House MP Natasha Maclaren-Jones becomes the Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services, Miranda MP Eleni Petinos will be the Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading and Goulburn MP Wendy Tuckerman the Local Government Minister.
“Obviously when it comes to having more women represented in the Liberal party in the parliament, we need to do better,” Perrottet said.
“We need to do better but ultimately I think increasing the female representation in the cabinet will be a great thing for our state.
“I believe that more diverse cabinets provide better perspectives and I think the team that we’ve got today, that the Deputy Premier and I have put together, is a team that will take New South Wales for sustained success in to the future.”
Perrottet has replaced two of the Liberal MPs, Shelley Hancock and Melinda Pavey.
Pavey released a statement on Saturday: “While I am disappointed, I respect the decision made,”
She also added that she was the “longest-serving National Party MP in Australia”.
The NSW Premier reminded viewers once again that: “Four of our new ministers are women, and their presence around the cabinet table will make our government better,”
“Each one of them has worked tirelessly to earn their position, I know they will continue to deliver for the people of NSW in their new roles.”
While we love to see his efforts, we think Perrottet still has a little to learn about diversity.
