Culture wars, renewables and what the federal Liberals could learn from NSW

Where the federal Coalition has prosecuted culture wars, its NSW counterpart has ducked or extinguished them at every opportunity.

By convincing Barilaro that the massive expansion of renewable energy generation would benefit the regions by creating new industry, as well as offering new passive income for farmers hosting energy infrastructure such as solar farms, the NSW Liberals were able to politically eliminate an issue which continues to vex the federal Coalition.

Part of that has to do with personality. For all the criticisms of Barilaro, at heart he remained a deal maker. His complete authority over the Nationals in NSW meant that once Kean was able to convince him of the benefits of his climate plan there was no chance of a backbench rebellion.

That same ethos exists throughout most of this state government. As one senior minister told the Guardian this week, in NSW the government benches are largely free of the type of culture warriors who have made a career out of prosecuting niche issues on Sky News after dark.

Take for example that in his short period as premier he has chided the former government on its religious discrimination bill, rejected a bill to ban transgender children from playing school sports aligning with their gender and allowed a conscience vote on voluntary assisted dying.

With Peter Dutton to be elected as the new opposition leader in Canberra, debate over the future direction of the Liberal party will no doubt continue. They could do worse than to learn from their colleagues in Macquarie Street.