Dominic Perrottet has admitted maintaining vaccination requirements during the Covid pandemic was a ‘mistake’.
The former New South Wales premier made the remarkable admission during his final speech to parliament on Tuesday, in which he also warned that ministers should not be “passengers of the public service”.
The former Liberal Party leader highlighted how vaccination mandates were forcing frontline workers such as police officers, firefighters and healthcare workers out of their jobs, putting further pressure on already understaffed services.
“Health officials and governments acted with the right intentions to stop the spread. But if the impact of vaccines on transmission was limited at best, as is now generally accepted, the law should have allowed more latitude and respect for freedom,” Mr Perrottet said.
“Ultimately, the mandates were wrong. People’s personal choices should not have cost them their jobs.”
Mr Perrottet claimed he wanted to get rid of the mandates as quickly as possible when he took over the premiership from Gladys Berejiklian, following her sudden resignation in September 2021, just days before Sydney’s three-month lockdown ended.
However, he admitted that the vaccination rules should have been abolished sooner.
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Perrottet bizarrely described himself as the “political love child” of former prime ministers John Howard and Paul Keating and said the coalition under his leadership had “reshaped our city and state … and laid the foundations for a promising future”.
Former New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet (pictured during his farewell speech on Tuesday) admitted Covid vaccination mandates during the pandemic were a ‘mistake’
Mr Perrottet highlighted how vaccination mandates have forced several frontline workers, including police officers, firefighters and healthcare workers, to leave their jobs, putting further pressure on already understaffed sectors.
“For 12 years our government has adopted a Bradfield-esque approach to governing,” he said.
The Coalition was in power for 12 years until it lost the 2023 state election, leading to Perrottet having to step down as leader.
Mr Keating was one of many leading politicians in the public gallery who attended Mr Perrottet’s speech.
Mr Perrottet praised Mr Keating for helping him realise the “power of imagination in politics”, despite the fact that they are both on opposite sides of politics.
“He also said to me once, ‘Stupid, I had to teach my assholes how to handle money and you have to teach your assholes how to handle people,'” he said.
Mr Perrottet also thanked Mr Howard for being a “constant source of wisdom”.
He reserved his greatest gratitude for his wife Helen, the mother of his six children.
“I have never appreciated or thanked you enough for the sacrifices you made for our family and for putting your own career aside to support me in my family,” Mr Perrottet said.
‘You carried the mental burden at home, while often working late into the evening on your legal work as a Major in the ADF. You were up long after the children had gone to bed and up long before they woke up.
“You have made so many sacrifices with so much selfless love and care over all these years. I can now understand why you seemed so happy during my speech announcing my concession on election night.”
As Mr Perrottet concluded his 13 years in politics, he thanked his wife Helen (pictured) for making ‘so many sacrifices with so much selfless love and care’
The former prime minister also shared five “lessons” from his 13 years in government.
“What I have learned is that the real opposition in government is not ‘the opposition’ but the status quo,” he said.
Mr Perrottet also urged his political colleagues not to be afraid to challenge civil servants, lest they end up as “a hamster in the wheel of a government department”.
“Ministers must also be persistent and determined to hold the public sector accountable for delivering reforms, as even simple ideas can face enormous resistance,” he said.
Mr Perrottet announced last month that he would be leaving his political career to work for mining company BHP in the United States.
“Politics is about winning the future – and you do that by having ideas. May the best ideas win,” he concluded his speech.