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Gladys Berejiklian was back for the Liberals this week.

Her emergence in the NSW election campaign may have been low key, but it certainly attracted attention, which could both help and hinder Dominic Perrottet.

The former premier was in Penrith to help the former minister Stuart Ayres.

He resigned from cabinet at the height of the John Barilaro overseas trade post scandal, and is now attempting to stave off Labor in his marginal seat.

Read more of our coverage at the ABC's NSW Election 2023 page.

If he wins and the Coalition is re-elected, he will be returned to the ministry.

The Penrith MP posted a selfie with Ms Berejiklian and his partner, Liberal Senator Marise Payne, outside a Chinese restaurant this week.

The trio go back a long way, and, Mr Ayres'decision to document his visit from the party's former leader was undoubtedly a considered one.

He knows the power of Gladys.

Some within her party refer to it as the "rockstar" effect.

Even though she resigned from the top job under a corruption cloud, and the watchdog is yet to hand down its findings, Ms Berejiklian attracts support like almost no other Liberal.

It was her first sighting during the campaign, just days after her noticeable absence from the party's official launch.

And, she wasn't the only leader, past or present, missing.

Other former premiers Mike Baird and Barry O'Farrell who is now Australia's High Commissioner to India were absent.

The party's federal leader Peter Dutton wasn't there, nor were former prime ministers Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott or Malcolm Turnbull, despite NSW being their home state.

Former prime minister John Howard was there, and got the welcome from Liberal Party members you'd expect pure excitement and adulation.

So, Ms Berejiklian suddenly showing up on the hustings was a surprise.

When asked, her successor was welcoming of her involvement.

"It's great to have Glad as part of the campaign," Mr Perrottet said.

"She was a great premier of New South Wales and to see her campaigning in Penrith I know will make a real difference."

But when pressed on her continued role in the campaign, and, whether he'd like to have her join him in his seat in Epping, the premier became flustered.

"If Gladys came to Epping that would say something," he said trying to laugh it off, referring to the fact that, unlike Penrith, his seat isn't marginal.

It was a slightly awkward moment.

He went on to say Ms Berejiklian had been a "great supporter of mine" and that they grew "close" during the pandemic.

But privately, it is known that their professional relationship (or friendship, if there ever was one) has not continued after her resignation.

Mr Perrottet was clearly uncomfortable talking about his predecessor publicly.

During a televised debate the day before, the Premier and Labor leader Chris Minns were both asked whether they thought Ms Berejiklian had been treated unfairly by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

There was no pause for thought. Both leaders emphatically answered: "No".

The Premier's stance is certainly different to some other Liberals and is in stark contrast to Mr Morrison's.

In 2021, the then-prime minister declared Ms Berejiklian had been "done over" by the state's corruption watchdog.

"What was done to Gladys Berejiklian, the people in New South Wales know was an absolute disgrace," Mr Morrison said at the time.

Back then, he was arguing against a push for a federal ICAC.

He also wanted the former premier to run in the federal seat of Warringah, on Sydney's northern beaches, to try to take it back from independent Zali Steggall.

Ms Berejiklian chose not to be the candidate, and, she is still waiting for the corruption watchdog to hand down its findings, maintaining she's done nothing wrong.

It's been two-and-a-half years since the bombshell revelation at ICAC she was in a secret relationship with the former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, who was under investigation for corruption.

And, it's been almost 18 months since Ms Berejiklian resigned as premier when ICAC announced it was also investigating her conduct over failing to disclose the relationship and the ramifications of that fact.

So, voters are going to the polls not knowing the outcome.

Mr Perrottet has always been steadfast in his support of the state's corruption watchdog.

It's also politically smart at this point.

He can't afford to ignite thedebate over integrity and corruption that played out during last year's federal campaignwhen there are "teal" independents challenging Liberals in Sydney's north.

Ms Berejiklian is set to pop up in at least one of those seats, in an unofficial capacity, before people head to the polls next Saturday.

The question is: will voters bask in her glow, or, does she cast a shadow?

It also draws inevitable comparisons between Ms Berejiklian as premier and Mr Perrottet, and it is indisputable that, at her height, she enjoyed far more popularity than the current leader.

For some voters, Ms Berejiklian may have the star power, but she is no longer the star of the show, and her presence isn't without its problems.

And, a problem-free campaign is key, one week out from polling day.

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Gladys Berejiklian's star power could be Liberals' NSW election trump card - ABC News

This week, Conservative Party deputy leader Melissa Lantsman joins John Ivison to talk about her political journey and the prospects for the Pierre Poilievre-led party in the next election.

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Lantsman says her involvement in politics started before she was a teenager, sparked by vigorous debates around the family dinner table.

Two years ago, Lantsman decided she wanted to make the move from working behind the scenes to federal Conservative candidate. She says she was fortunate to be able to get nomination endorsements from every type of Tory, including Stephen Harper and Pierre Poilievre and Rona Ambrose.

Just weeks into her career as a politician, Justin Trudeau accused the Conservatives of standing with people who wave swastikas in response to a question from the rookie MP about the Freedom Convoy. Lantsman now calls the comment unbecoming of a prime minister of a G7 country.

This week, Lantsman strongly criticized Trudeaus choice for special rapporteur to look into Chinese election interference. She referred to David Johnston as a Trudeau Foundation insider, but says it is a knock against how Trudeau is mishandling the issue not a criticism of Johnstons character.

I think its incumbent on the prime minister to name somebody that the Canadian population would see has no bias and no conflict whatsoever.

On whether Conservative leader Pierre Poilievres uncompromising approach will resonate with disenfranchised Liberals, Lantsman seems positive.

Our coalition may not look like the traditional Conservative coalition but it doesnt mean that people arent going to look for an alternative when it comes to a better future.

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Ivison: Deputy Tory leader says new Conservative coalition is building to bring down Liberals - National Post

BeliefsandPracticesBelief in God among liberals

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% of liberals who say religion is

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Liberals - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and ...

Five years later the Democrats would nominate an Iraq War opponent named Barack Hussein Obama and win decisively. By 2016, Bushism would be essentially repudiated in the Republican Party by Donald Trump. Today the vestiges of early-2000s hawkishness survive in establishment opposition to Bidens Afghanistan withdrawal, but dovishness is often a political asset rather than a liability, and the post-9/11 vision of a G.O.P. running against weak-on-terror Democrats long ago dissolved.

So has the Bush-era vision of a G.O.P. rallying so-called values voters, a Christian and churchgoing voting bloc, against secularism, sexual liberation and same-sex marriage. The Jesusland that showed up in liberal memes after the 2004 election has been shrinking ever since, and socially liberal values have advanced on a wide range of issues. A world where Republicans could run a national campaign promising to maintain marriage as a heterosexual institution has given way to a world where Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices lock in transgender rights and about one-sixth of American adults in Generation Z self-identify as outside heterosexuality (even if, one supposes, some of them still practice it).

Finally, progressivism has triumphed over the conservative ideology of welfare-state retrenchment, embodied by Bushs push for Social Security private accounts and, in a more dramatic way, by Tea Party deficit panic and Paul Ryans big plans for Medicare and Medicaid reform.

In 2003, this limited-government ideology was powerful enough to keep major health-insurance expansion off the table for Democrats. By 2011, that expansion had happened but seemed it could easily be rolled back, and Obama was officially committed to some form of the deficit reduction demanded by the Tea Party right. But since then, weve lived through a Republican administration that failed to dislodge Obamacare and ditched entitlement reform, an unprecedented experiment in social spending to carry the country through the pandemic and a further spending surge under Biden with Joe Manchin, the most rightward Senate Democrat on fiscal matters, standing to the left of where Obama stood 10 years ago.

So not one but three right-of-center ideologies crusading neoconservatism, moralizing religious conservatism, Tea Party government-cutting have fallen to progressivisms advance. Meanwhile, the country is more racially diverse, pot is legal or semilegal in many states, incarceration rates have fallen, and ideas once on the leftward fringe are dominant across media and academia. In all these ways and more, America in 2021 is the country that liberals in the Bush era wished they lived in: more liberal and permissive across multiple dimensions, less traditionally religious and heteronormative, less male-dominated and less white.

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Cheer Up, Liberals. You Have the America You Wanted.

Liberal media pundits and Democratic Party lawmakers denounced Republicans heckling President Joe Bidens State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

At various moments during his speech, Biden was met with jeers, boos, and accusations of him being a "liar" from various congressional Republicans in the House chamber, particularly when he invoked the fentanyl crisis ravaging American communities.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stood out among the vocal dissenters. At multiple points during the speech, the congresswoman could be heard shouting Biden was a "liar," with her most animated outburst occurring his claim that Republicans were looking to "sunset" social security.

Journalists and commentators from both network and cable news, as well as a couple indignant Democratic Party senatorsm made a point to denounce the heckling as "childish" and "distasteful." One journalist dubbed the hecklers "chaos entrepreneurs."

BIDEN REPEATEDLY FELL SHORT OF PROMISES HE MADE IN 2022 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

CNN's Jake Tapper and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., discussed the hecklers that interrupted President Biden's State of the Union Address. (Screenshot/CNN)

CNN anchor Jake Tapper complained about the heckling to in-studio guest Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former Speaker of the House who tore up former President Donald Trumps 2020 SOTU speech on camera. While Republicans balked at the time, it delighted liberal media members; one Vox write-up gushed over "Pelosis small gesture that cut deepest." Several Democrats also boycotted or walked out of Trump's speech that year and received positive coverage for their gestures.

During CNNs evening coverage of the speech, Tapper said, "There was heckling like Ive never really heard at a State of The Union address."

"I think that they were protesting too much," Pelosi fretted.

Mentioning their jeering over Bidens social security beat, she added, "They knew that they had been identified as putting Medicare and social security on the table and they were trying to dismiss that." She added, "This was sort of showbiz."

"It didnt bother you though, the lack of decorum?" Tapper asked.

"No," Pelosi said. "Actually they were for them fairly well-behaved from what we see every day of the week in the House of Representatives unfortunately." Tapper laughed and moved on, making no mention of Pelosis behavior during Trumps State of The Union address.

Pelosi's past conduct didn't escape some Republicans' attention.

"Remember when Nancy Pelosi ripped the State of the Union speech? The media and the Democrats hailed her as a hero instead of criticizing her for a lack of respect and decorum. Imagine for a moment a Republican doing this how much more hypocrisy can we take as a country?" tweeted Arizona Republican Abraham Hamadeh.

During CBS News evening coverage of the address, CBS News anchor Norah ODonnell appeared shocked by the GOP heckling on the House floor.

"Speaker McCarthy is trying to present a new image, standing on many occasions, but there were a lot of disruptions from the crowd," she said.

BIDEN ONLY MENTIONED CHINA 3 TIMES IN 2022 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, Feb 7, 2023, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin)

CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes chimed in, saying, "Norah, weve seen Republican hecklers at States of the Union before but this time the speech almost turned into a call and response at some point. And at least four times, the House speaker had to visibly shush members of his party because they were shouting at the President of the United States."

Cordes added, "They called him a liar, they accused him of causing the fentanyl crisis, and on and on."

Later in the coverage, CBS News correspondent Scott McFarlane claimed that the heckling was "jarring" and bothering others in the chamber. He stated, "What you can't see on TV is the crowd in the upper level, these guests, these citizens who came with the members of Congress. It was so jarring. You could see it in their body language, you could see it in their facial expressions."

At another point in the CBS News coverage, anchor John Dickerson described the hecklers as "chaos entrepreneurs" who peddle in these outbursts.

Former Republican congressman-turned-CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger tore into Greene for her outbursts. On Twitter, the former lawmaker wrote, "My fellow Republicans you really want this as a role model for your kids? Do you really think the next generation will want to be part of this? I dont."

In another tweet, Kinzinger added, "The GOP should lead the censure of @RepMTG for her behavior."

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CNN reported that Senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., were not pleased with the outbursts.

After the speech, Durbin described the hecklers as "really unbefitting" of the nature of the address. Manchin called the outbursts "awful childish," "distasteful" and claimed they "might be acceptable in a Third World country."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. The speech marks Biden's first address to the new Republican-controlled House. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough also castigated his former party as "jackasses" on Wednesday morning.

Biden's remarks drew accolades in the liberal media, with MSNBC's Joy Reid calling him "brilliant" multiple times, CNN's Wolf Blitzer calling it one of the best speeches he's ever given, and left-wing historian Michael Beschloss gushing Biden was "Mr. Smooth."

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.

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Liberals clutch pearls over GOP heckling Biden, didn't care Pelosi ...