Having wrested a handful of western Sydney seats from the Liberals in Saturday’s election,Labor was still clinging to hope of winning majority government as the contest narrowed in key electorates including Kiama and Ryde,while Terrigal on the Central Coast was too close to call.
NSW Premier-elect Chris Minns (centre),with treasurer designate Daniel Mookhey and water spokeswoman Rose Jackson.Nikki Short
Key independents Alex Greenwich,Greg Piper and Joe McGirr issued a statement late on Monday confirming the trio had agreed to provide confidence and supply to the incoming Minns government,should it be required if it did not win a majority.
Regardless of whether the party can win the 47 seats required for a majority in the state’s lower house,Treasurer designate Daniel Mookhey said it was clear that Labor was in a position to form government in NSW,confirming a small group of senior MPs would be sworn into key portfolios on Tuesday.
A skeleton cabinet – which will include Jo Haylen in transport,Prue Car in education,Ryan Park in health and Mookhey as treasurer – will gain access to the public service,and is expected to call for briefings from the bureaucracy on Sydney’s transport network,the Menindee fish kill and Northern Rivers flood recovery.
“As a result,tomorrow there will be a Labor government formed in NSW constitutionally,” Mookhey said. “The transport system is presenting its challenges,and it is important that we have a transport minister in place who’s able to deal with some of the challenges that have emerged in the last few days on the rail network.”
NSW Premier-elect Chris Minns vowing to get straight to work after Labor's victory.
As key ministers receive briefings on their portfolios this week,the incoming health minister said the new Labor government was preparing to embark on a major recruitment drive aimed at luring nurses and other hospital workers back from interstate to boost staffing levels.
With Minns vowing to scrap a legislated cap on public sector wage growth,Park said he was focused on implementing Labor’s new staffing structure across the state’s hospitals,which will rely on an influx of workers.
Park said the success of the NSW Labor government’s key health policies would be contingent on attracting more people back into the state’s healthcare system.
“It’s trying to attract people from other states,it’s trying to get those that we’ve lost perhaps back in the system,it’s probably trying to get ones that have gone to two or three days a week if they can increase that to more days,” Park told theHerald.
Ryan Park (centre) will be sworn in as the state’s new health minister. Attracting workers back to the NSW hospital system is his top priority.Flavio Brancaleone
Park expects to receive briefings from federal counterparts this week following calls from former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet for urgent Medicare reform and more free GPs to stop patients clogging emergency departments.
While the previous state government lauded its multibillion-dollar infrastructure pipeline,which included the construction of new hospitals and medical centres,Park insisted that staffing needed to be the priority.
Meanwhile,Mookhey welcomed calls from public sector unions for urgent talks with the incoming government to review wages for essential workers and said Labor was going to “honour our promises”.
“We want to sit down and negotiate with people who are staffing our critical services as well,and we look forward to commencing that as soon as we can,” he said.
He said a government review of Sydney’s expansive toll road system would also be undertaken “really fast”.
The son of north Indian migrants,Mookhey will be the first minister to be sworn in on the Bhagavad Gita,the most prominent Hindu text,at Government House on Tuesday.
A wider Labor ministry will be sworn in over coming weeks as the full results of Saturday’s elections become known. Mookhey thanked outgoing premier Perrottet for lending a hand to the Labor transition team and said he had shown “tremendous grace” during the handover.
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