New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state, came under new leadership on Monday. After Gladys Berejiklian’s dramatic resignation last week, a flurry of last minute wheeling and dealing over the weekend resulted in former state treasurer Dominic Perrottet assuming the premiership after overwhelmingly winning the internal Liberal Party vote.

At just thirty-nine years old, Perrottet is the youngest-ever premier of the state, and his career has seen him determinedly and swiftly rise up the ranks of the NSW Liberals, becoming president of the party’s youth wing in 2005, a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly in 2011, and just six years later, state treasurer.

Now, his election to the state’s top job is raising eyebrows among many. A figure from the right of the — right-wing — Liberal Party and a staunch Catholic with alleged links to Opus Dei, Perrottet’s election promises a new era of even deeper social and political conservatism.