‘I gave away caring too much’: Berejiklian on leadership post-2020

“I kind of gave away what all of us have, all of us worry about sometimes too much, about what criticism might be weighed against you … that’s both liberating and gives you courage as a leader.”

Ms Berejiklian said she believes the pandemic and last summer’s bushfires had changed the country’s political discourse and there’s less appetite in the community for political spin.

“I’m not as good as the other premiers are on that stuff … My innate personality is pretty plain and basic, I’m pretty simply stated as a person. I’m not really flowery or anything,” she said.

“When it is life and death, when you’re making decisions that weigh heavily upon you that literally can affect someone’s job, their life, their health, you give away caring about the criticism.”

Engaged in ongoing border disputes, Ms Berejiklian said state leaders needed to learn to work more effectively during 2021, and expressed frustration at the Victorian government shutting off too quickly to NSW during the recent northern beaches outbreak.

“Give us a chance, we waited until you had 150-180 cases a day before we moved and then they panicked,” Ms Berejiklian said.

She added that she felt no pressure to toe the federal government’s line on coronavirus responses.

“When we’ve needed to we’ve really pushed back strongly, but there comes a stage where you need to also look beyond your state boundaries as well and think about the nation,” Ms Berejiklian said.

She indicated the government would look to expand the research and development sector in NSW, including vaccine technology in 2021.

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“That will be accompanied with structural change in government on how we can centralise and coordinate better our research and development capacity,” she said.

“When people think of the next vaccine breakthrough or the next breakthrough in energy storage, why not consider what’s happening in NSW. I’d like us to look at that because that’s a jobs generator and we have the capacity to do it.”

Ms Berejiklian said the government would look to partner with the private sector to develop its research and development sector.

The Premier travelled to northern NSW on Tuesday and Wednesday touring several regional electorates held by the Nationals. Relationships were strained within the NSW Coalition last year amid an internal fight over a koala planning policy and its potential impact on regional land owners.

Nationals leader John Barilaro said last year he believed his relationship with the Premier had changed during the civil war from personal to “professional”.

However, Ms Berejiklian said she didn’t think things had changed between them.

“For me it’s pretty similar,” she said. “In my role you have a professional relationship with all your colleagues and I feel they’re as strong as ever.”