No let-up likely for Kean as environmental challenges keep mounting

Kean, unusual for a Liberal minister anywhere in Australia, says “the number one issue is climate change” and dealing with it – the implementation of his new energy policy will be a top priority in 2021.

Also topping his agenda, he says, will be securing cabinet support for new curbs on single-use plastics by March and launching a new 20-year strategy to reduce and reuse waste.

A policy to support electric vehicles – in contrast to the plan by the Andrews’ Labor government to introduce a road users tax in Victoria – may also be unveiled as soon as next month.

Ross Garnaut, author of the book Superpower: Australia’s low carbon opportunity, and a former senior advisor to the Hawke Labor government, is among those impressed.

“Matt Kean has shown that transformative reform that stays the distance can still be possible in Australia,” says Garnaut.

“[The energy plan] sets the state up to be a leader of the development of zero-emissions industry.”

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“In the past Victoria has been in front [of NSW] but this set of initiatives is of a kind and scale that puts it ahead.”

Those gains, though, have only raised expectations.

“He’s been doing pretty great things but what are the next steps?” Stuart Khan, a water expert at the University of NSW, asks. “I’d be expecting him to burn a little of his political capital.”

Even with the better rains, the main dams in the northern Murray-Darling Basin are barely a quarter full, so water issues – a policy area Kean shares with Nationals’ counterpart Melinda Pavey – haven’t gone away.

And yet, the Berejiklian government plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the Dungowan and Wyangala storages even though neither has had an environmental impact statement.

“Where’s the Environment Department?” Khan asks. “Why aren’t they pushing for their assessments to be heard?”

Without serious efforts to address water issues, particularly as climate change reduces flows and fosters more cyanobacterial and other toxic blooms, “we’ll not have Australian native fish” and inland communities will be threatened, Khan says.

Kean has also been largely silent on the government’s plans to spend potentially billions of dollars to raise the height of the Warragamba Dam wall. “Someone needs to be advocating the protection of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed park,” Khan says.

Elaine Johnson, a director of the Environmental Defenders’ Office, agrees the energy package was “a great start” for Kean, but only that.

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The government, she notes, continues to support new coal mines, including South 32’s planned expansion of its Dendrobium project that will further undermine Greater Sydney’s water catchment. The Independent Planning Commission is expected to give its verdict on January 22.

“We’re still seeing continued approval of new fossil fuel projects, including a lot in the second half of 2020,” Johnson says. “That’s not consistent with climate change action.”

Another unresolved issue potentially putting Kean at odds with the Nationals is habitat destruction. It threatens koalas and other species already left more vulnerable after last summer’s record-breaking bushfires.

Chris Gambian, chief executive of the NSW Nature Conservation Council, says groups like his “won’t let [Kean] rest on his laurels”, with “vast amounts of land clearing” still going on.

“Koalas really highlighted some of the tensions within the government” in 2020, Gambian says, noting the stand-off between Nationals leader John Barilaro with Planning Minister Rob Stokes.

Barilaro at one point last year threatened to take the Nationals to the crossbench before backing down and taking a month’s sick leave. Stokes, meanwhile, was ordered by Berejiklian to rework the state’s koala planning policy from scratch.

“One core challenge for 2021 is what happens with koalas,” Gambian says. “We’ve got an extinction crisis. What are they going to do to make sure koalas don’t go extinct by 2050?”

The formal creation of a Great Koala National Park near Coffs Harbour and stopping logging in state forests would be “a good next step but it won’t be enough”, he says.

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Greens environment spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann, says after the Black Summer of 2019-20, “something really bold had to happen” in terms of conserving wildlife in NSW.

“The climate change and energy plan is extremely encouraging but we need from [Minister Kean] 100 per cent commitment and dedication to getting strong environmental protections in place,” she says.

“Despite [his] very effusive statements of how much he cares for nature and the koala, his actions haven’t matched his words so far,” Faehrmann says, noting Kean’s pledge to double koala numbers by 2050.

Barilaro, who is also forestry minister, indicates he is open to change.

“After last year’s fires, there’s no question there’s been an impact on both national parks and all our floral resources, including our timber resources,” he tells The Sun-Herald. As a result, he’s prepared to “revisit all that”.

Kean says he’s more than open to working closer with Barilaro. Tapping the Biodiversity Conservation Fund to reward farmers for protecting important native habitat could be one way to foster support for conservation efforts.

“I’ve learnt that in order to get things done in this portfolio, you’ve got to build broad support and secure a durable coalition,” Kean says, adding, “there’s no way I’d be able to achieve the majority of this stuff without John Barilaro”.

Politics, though, threw up a few surprises in 2020 – not least Berejiklian’s relationship with disgraced former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire – and 2021 may do so too.

Assuming the Premier keeps her role, a reshuffle is expected by March, with speculation swirling that Kean could be shifted out of energy and environment into the transportation portfolio.

Kean declined to comment other than to say he served “at the Premier’s pleasure…I’m really enjoying what I’m doing and I want to do it as long as possible”.

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Should Kean’s NSW ambitions be stymied, though, a career in federal politics might yet beckon.

Bob Carr, the former Labor NSW premier who later made the switch to become foreign minister in the Gillard government, says Kean has earned a national profile.

“At last an Australian conservative who can talk about climate change. I admired him during the mega fires for not being silenced by climate denying coal-huggers in Canberra, even the Prime Minister,” Carr says. “He’s showing how gutless are his federal Liberal colleagues who only talk about climate in whispers behind their hands.”

For his part, Kean won’t rule out such a change.

“I’m not going to die wondering,” he says. “My focus is on NSW for the foreseeable future but anything can happen. Who knows?”