New NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane expected to go after Premier Chris Minns with slick PR campaign

NSW Liberal MPs chose former television journalist Kellie Sloane as their leader Friday morning, a switch expected to be followed by a slick public relations campaign designed to undermine Premier Chris Minns’ nice-guy reputation.

Liberal Party sources said Ms Sloane — who has never held ministerial rank — would use her three decades of media experience to draw attention to the opposition and portray Mr Minns as an overly cautious leader afraid to get interest groups off side.

A short meeting of Liberal MPs Friday morning endorsed the 52-year-old as leader after less than three years in parliament — an easy decision given no one else stood for the position. Predecessor Mark Speakman resigned on Thursday after being told he had lost his colleagues’ support.

While Mr Speakman, a barrister with an intellectual streak, concentrated on developing policy proposals, Ms Sloane is expected to focus on a PR operation targeted at gaining newspaper and television coverage.

Asked by reporters to critique Mr Minns, she said: “He’s a formidable opponent. He seems like a nice guy but he is not delivering much. We need to remind people of that.”

She singled out a need for a more ambitious transport infrastructure — a reference to the government’s reluctance to build more rail lines on cost grounds — and the approval of large apartment buildings next to train stations across Sydney and in regional cities.

Overriding councils to build more and cheaper homes is the government’s signature achievement. But Ms Sloane, representing a Nimby stronghold in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, repeated the concerns of many existing residents that development is moving too fast.

“My concern is that Labor is drawing circles on maps and they’re building (apartment) blocks,” she said. “We need to build homes and we need to build communities.”

Mr Minns, who has an unusual habit of praising his opponents, did not respond to her comments.

Net zero and caviar

One challenge will be reconciling the state party’s support for eliminating Greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with the federal Liberals’ decision last week to end its support for what is known as the net zero policy.

As the member for Vaucluse, an electorate within the federal “teal” seat of Wentworth, Ms Sloane may chose to distance herself from federal counterpart Sussan Ley, who is open to support extending the life of coal-fired power stations, which contribute to global warming.

“You try selling the Liberal Party at the moment with that shit show in Canberra,” one former state Liberal minister said Friday morning.

A lifestyle journalist who worked at Seven, Nine, Ten and the ABC, Ms Sloane is seen as one of the most telegenic politicians in NSW, either male or female. Her husband, Adam Connolly, was a political reporter for the state’s biggest newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, and is now a public relations consultant close to the property industry.

“There’s tremendous value in having a leader who hasn’t been a politician for an incredibly long time,” Liberal energy spokesman James Griffin told The Nightly. “They bring an outsiders’ perspective into parliament and politics that a lot of people will appreciate.”

Highlighting her privileged background, a photo circulated on X Friday that Ms Sloane posted of herself in 2017 eating caviar on a superyacht, prompting one person to ask on the website if she should be nicknamed “Caviar Kellie” or “Superyacht Sloane”.

“I don’t think I need to rebrand based on one picture from a decade ago where I was chuffed to have an opportunity to tour that boat,” she said.

Nazi abuse

As the representative of suburbs with a large Jewish population, Ms Sloane has become a target of far-right abuse. On Thursday a neo-Nazi complained on the Telegram website that as “girl boss mafia” was taking over the Liberal Party, a reference to Ms Sloan, and new Liberal leaders federally and in Victoria, Sussan Ley and Jess Wilson, according to News.com.au.

Two weeks ago Ms Sloane received death threats after condemning a National Socialist Network protest on the grounds of Parliament House. “I’m not going to be intimidated by them,” she said on Friday. “This is a rise of a movement globally that is incredibly troubling.”

In her previous role as the Coalition’s health spokesperson, Ms Sloane has campaigned against illegal tobacco sales. Three months ago she introduced a law that would have imposed $1.5 million fines or seven years in jail for selling illicit cigarettes.

The bill did not become law. Instead, the government introduced new powers from November 3 that allow health inspectors to shut down tobacco stores for 90 days, which have been used 24 times, according to the Health Department.

While pursuing the government over its perceived timidity, Ms Sloane pledged to Liberal MPs on Friday that she would be a collaborative and inclusive leader. The party has been beset by factional tensions that undermined Mr Speakman’s leadership.