‘NSW has voted for change’: NSW Labor returns from the wilderness (original) (raw)

By Tom Rabe

Updated March 25, 2023 — 11.12pm

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns declared that his resounding victory was a decisive vote against the Coalition’s public sector wages cap, as he vowed to stop any future sale of Sydney Water.

Labor’s campaign event was heaving late on Saturday night, awash with emotion and relief as the party tracked towards majority government. The win came 28 years to the day since Labor had last won an election from opposition, when Bob Carr anointed himself “the comeback kid”.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns and his wife Anna take to the stage at Labor’s election night event.Credit: Janie Barrett

After 12 years in the political wilderness, Minns said Saturday’s thumping result was a sign not only that NSW voters believed Labor was ready to govern, but that an election could be won off the back of a positive campaign which did not take “the low road”.

“We know that the challenges are huge, the responsibilities are awesome, but NSW Labor is back and ready to govern in this great state,” he said.

“I don’t know that every campaign in the future will be conducted the same way, but from now on, no one will be able to say that it can’t be.”

Minns said Labor’s victory provided a mandate to change the state’s constitution to prevent any possible future sale of Sydney Water, an issue central to Labor’s election campaign.

The nervous but optimistic crowd quickly transformed into a celebrating mass of red shirts as television pundits called the election for Labor by 8.30pm. The room was ecstatic by 10pm when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took to the stage and declared Chris Minns would be NSW’s next premier.

“Tonight is someone else’s night,” Albanese said, to rapturous cheers, before describing Minns as someone who embodied the best of the Labor Party.

On stage with his wife, Anna, and their three children, Minns vowed to scrap the Perrottet government’s wages cap. The victory was a basic acknowledgment, he said, that essential workers “put themselves second, and the public first”.

Earlier in the evening, the state’s next deputy premier, Prue Car, said the historic win came down to the relatively unexciting issue of basic service delivery.

“It’s clear that people have voted for change today,” she said.

“I think tonight’s result shows that we listened to people, and we were campaigning on issues that were concerning them and what state government is responsible for – the basic delivery of services.

“It feels like it’s a really hopeful night for us, but we don’t take anything for granted.”

The Labor campaign homed in on Sydney’s cost-of-living crisis, pointing to the Coalition government’s history of privatisation of toll roads and energy assets as a major cause of the pain. A Labor strategist said they believed the party had succeeded in linking privatisation with rising costs during the three-month campaign.

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Labor was claiming key seats of Riverstone, East Hills and Parramatta and believed it would form at least a minority government before 9pm, when NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet called Opposition Leader Chris Minns to concede.

Minns had been watching the election unfold from his home in Sydney’s south before heading to the party’s main reception just minutes away.

Labor treasury spokesman Daniel Mookhey said Labor had been vindicated for running a positive campaign and listening to western Sydney families.

“I think Chris was right from day one in saying we had to focus on a positive agenda and to focus on families ... this is a victory for the true believers,” he said.

Former premier Bob Carr said Labor had experienced a surge in support in the final days of the campaign.

“The striking thing is the breadth of the Labor gains here. Chris didn’t make a single mistake in the campaign, and he deserves full credit,” he told the Herald.

Labor water spokeswoman Rose Jackson said while Perrottet had run an admirable campaign, he had been let down by the Liberal brand and a caucus bereft of talent.

“We picked the right issues, we were incredibly disciplined on it. We wanted it more,” she said.