Fellow Liberals
Acknowledgments
I want to begin by acknowledging our country.
I celebrate Australia’s Indigenous heritage - a heritage that extends over 60,000 years, and I pay my respects to the Gadigal and all traditional owners of the lands from which we’ve variously travelled this morning, and to their elders past, present and emerging.
I celebrate the giants of our modern history, on whose shoulders we stand, and our constitutional and democratic foundations - foundations that as a member of Parliament I seek to serve every day.
And I celebrate our multicultural present and future - because in Australia every race, creed and belief contribute to making us the most successful multicultural nation on earth.
Friends, I’d rather be standing here as a minister in a fourth term Coalition Government, continuing the work of delivering good government for the people of NSW.
But fourth terms, even for good governments, are extraordinarily difficult to win, and I pay tribute to Dominic Perrottet, Chris Stone and everyone in this room who worked so hard in the lead-up to the election.
We lost the last election despite Dom, not because of him. He took on the Premiership in difficult circumstances. He moved remarkable, far-reaching reforms. History will judge Dom very kindly, as a Premier with extraordinary policy foresight.
Please join me in thanking Dom.
No job’s easy, but the State Directorship is a next level challenge, and Chris Stone has handled it with great strength, commitment, refinement and composure.
Thank you, Chris.
I’m deeply honoured to be standing here as your NSW Parliamentary Leader.
I joined our party in 1978.
For those doing the maths in their head, that’s 45 years ago!
I was 18. I’d just finished my HSC.
I was making two momentous decisions, not that I realised that at the time - to study law and to join the Cronulla-Caringbah Young Liberals.
The law taught me about justice, fairness, respect for the individual and their rights - as well as responsibilities. It gave me an appreciation for strong processes, accountability and thoroughness.
And the law ingrained in me what it means to act with integrity, because at the end of the day you have to be able to look yourself, your family and your community, in the eye.
And politics - and the Liberal Party, taught me about community.
In politics, you don’t achieve anything alone.
You never do.
I’ve never seen anyone win on election night standing alone.
If you win on election night - it’s because there are friends, family, colleagues and party members donating money, working on pre-poll and at street stalls and shopping centres, setting up polling booths, handing out how-to-votes, and giving feedback when you need it.
As party members - as volunteers - you do all this, you participate in democracy, because you care.
That’s why we’ve all turned up today - because we care about our communities, our State and our country.
And you know, and I know, that the values we share as Liberals are the surest foundation for a bright future.
As we’ve experienced in recent times, in politics there are knocks and setbacks. And then you learn from your mistakes, you get back up and you keep participating - because ultimately, it’s not about you, it’s about the people you serve and the values you believe in.
That’s the approach I’ll take over the next four years.
The recent Coalition Government
We should all be proud of the recent Coalition Government.
We transformed NSW.
We transformed it with the biggest infrastructure boom since Lachlan Macquarie.
We transformed it with the likes of WestConnex, NorthConnex, Sydney Metro, scores of new schools, hospitals, arts and cultural projects - totalling hundreds of billions of dollars in new infrastructure.
We transformed NSW in a way that quite simply would never have happened under Labor.
We transformed the way families, households and businesses interact with government departments, by creating Service NSW from scratch - and our customer service approach to government is now being copied by other governments right around Australia and the world.
We helped transform NSW into a job-creating powerhouse through our support for businesses, large and small - with unemployment now at 3.1%, the lowest of any State.
During times of crisis - the worst drought in 120 years, the unprecedented Black Summer bush fires, the COVID pandemic, the mice plague, and flood after flood - our government was quick to pivot and support communities through hardship.
Our government’s record is one of which all Liberals can be proud.
For I acknowledge the outstanding work of our Liberal Premiers – Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird, Gladys Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet.
Now to the future - my goals, and those of my Parliamentary team, are to renew, to rebuild and to win government in four years.
Nothing less.
The result in March was no way what we’d worked so hard for, but let’s put that in perspective.
Even after 12 years in Opposition, Labor are still in minority in both Houses.
The Liberal-National Coalition holds exactly the same number of seats as Labor did in 2019. We hold more seats than we did in 2007 before our record-breaking victory.
Along with the Nationals, we’re just a change in five seats away from being the largest group in the Legislative Assembly.
The road ahead
Today I want to speak to you about our approach for the next four years, and what we have to do to win in 2027.
Organisational capability
The first thing we have to do is focus on our organisational capability as a party.
It’s the first thing we have to do, because everything flows from it.
We have to renew our party - with deeper connections to the community.
Our membership has to reflect our communities - from the cities through to the regions.
With more members - more women, more young people, more representatives from multicultural communities .
Renewal starts with one word - respect.
Respect for each other, and respect for the volunteer members of the party.
The party that Menzies created 80 years ago was a partnership - between the parliamentary party and the organisational wing.
And we have to strengthen the relationship between those two wings.
It means conferences meeting regularly, policy debates, more Q&A at our meetings, serious work on mentoring and candidate identification, particularly women, young people and people from non-English speaking backgrounds.
And a partnership means working closely together, respecting each other and what we all bring to the party.
For me and our leadership team of deputy Natalie Ward, Upper House leader Damien Tudehope and Lower House deputy Robyn Preston, that means a deep interaction with our conferences across the state.
Over the next 12 months, I’ll be available to visit every conference.
As I said: it’s a partnership - between the members and the Parliamentary party.
Because winning in the seats we need starts with engaging deeply in those communities - systematically building deeper links to every part of the local community.
Listening.
Engaging.
Broadening our base.
Finding new members.
Working together on local initiatives and policies.
And working together on early identification of a pool of potential candidates well ahead of 2027.
The path back to Government is from the ground up. Not from the top down.
Our team
I’m excited about how so many of our new Parliamentarians have shown how to do exactly that.
One reason I’m optimistic about the next four years is that we have 10 new outstanding recruits - evidence of our Party’s ongoing renewal.
Six of those 10 are women. Now 44% of Liberal shadow ministers are women.
We have 6 MPs under 35 years old; Labor has none.
Let’s look at our new members …
Rory Amon - a local councillor, and someone who at the age of 18 joined his local fire brigade, before volunteering right throughout the devastating Black Summer bushfires.
Tina Ayyad - a mother, former deputy mayor, advocate for organ donation and our public hospitals, and the first Muslim Liberal member of any Parliament in Australia.
Matt Cross - a stalwart of our Party, using his Master of Public Administration from Harvard, and extensive experience across not-for-profit organisations and corporate roles such as The George Institute for Global Health and KPMG Australia, to build a better future for our State.
Stephanie Di Pasqua - the youngest ever Liberal female member of the Legislative Assembly, a deputy mayor totally engaged in her local community.
Mark Hodges - a former police officer and prosecutor, a former deputy mayor, with a passion to help victims of domestic and family violence.
Jordan Lane - a former mayor of Ryde - once the youngest mayor in NSW, and a strong advocate for our multicultural communities.
Kellie Sloane - former CEO of Life Education - already making a serious contribution as Shadow Environment Minister.
Susan Carter - a fine legal mind and vital in holding the government to account over the next four years.
Rachel Merton - a strong policy contributor, with more than 14 years’ experience in senior roles at KPMG.
And Jacqui Munro - a powerful advocate and mentor for women and young people in our Party and across the community.
And our shadow cabinet team has many decades of ministerial experience governing the biggest State economy in Australia.
Our values
I’m determined that our team will be guided by our Liberal values.
Proven values demonstrated over successive Governments.
Values that are work again and again because they‘re timeless.
Nick Greiner often spoke about governing with hard heads and soft hearts.
It was a philosophy John Fahey demonstrated in Macquarie Street, and in Canberra when he partnered with Peter Costello to launch the biggest budget repair in Australian history.
Barry O’Farrell transformed Government with the Liberal ideal that the individual must be at the heart of what we do.
You can see that idea expressed in Service NSW, and in the Service NSW app on your phone, or when you tap on the bus or train with your Opal card or credit card. It’s all a reflection of our values - that people should be at the centre of Government decision-making. Not at the end of it.
Mike Baird, Gladys Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet, as treasurers and later as premiers, showed that getting the Budget and the economy right is the foundation for everything else.
Our policy approach
Over the next four years, we’ll develop policies for the people of NSW:
…that are fiscally prudent and economically responsible.
…that invest in the economic capacity of NSW - with more jobs, productivity enhancing infrastructure and that identify new jobs and industries.
…that deliver better services meeting the needs of people - with people always at the centre.
…and that focus on giving people choice, freedom and confidence to take risks and embrace the future.
We’ll use the next four years in Opposition to plan the next chapter for NSW - and to build on what we’ve done over the past 12 years.
I want us to lead the housing affordability debate in NSW over the next four years. 9
It’s the biggest issue facing young people across our State, especially in Sydney.
We tackled hard challenges like stamp duty reform - making it easier for first home buyers to enter the market – but one of Labor’s first acts in Parliament was to repeal these nation-leading reforms.
Our younger Parliamentarians know the difficult experience the difficulties of home ownership in this city. They’ve championed this in their inaugural speeches.
We’ll work with policy experts, industry leaders and - most importantly - communities, on policy options to drive solutions in this critical policy area.
I want to put people at the centre of planning policy and taxation policy in NSW.
And if the Government picks up and runs with our ideas, then well and good!
We’ve already shown what we can do, even from opposition – with a private member’s bill to ban offshore exploration and mining.
We won’t give up fighting to see cashless gaming across NSW. This is even more important when households are under pressure with federal Labor cost of living crisis. Let’s see who Labor, and the independents, stand with.
Holding Labor to account
We’ll scrutinise this Government - because scrutiny always produces better outcomes.
The Labor Government is not even 100 days old, and we’ve called out its slashing of vital cost of living programs like Active Kids, Creative Kids and First Lap and its risking of vital infrastructure projects in order to deliver its unfunded election promises.
The Labor Government is not even 100 days old, and we’ve called out its string of broken promises on Active Kids, secret rent bidding, privatisation, cashless gaming and wage increases. 10
They said they’d roll over Active Kids. Instead, they’re cutting it by 85%.
They said they’d ban secret rent bidding. Instead, they’ve now abandoned any ban.
They said no privatisation. Instead, they’re going to sell off public land.
They said a cashless gaming trial by 1 July. Instead, they have no design and no start date.
They said no unfunded public sector wage increases. Instead, they now say they’ll cost $2.5 billion over 4 years.
When Labor spun a Budget blackhole lie, shifting the blame for the Minns Government’s broken promises, wrong priorities and public sector union wage deal blowout – we called it out.
Our strong economic management delivered two AAA credit ratings and put us on track back to surplus in 2024-25, after droughts, floods, fires and a once-in-a-century pandemic.
When Labor lies or basks in the glory of achievements that aren’t theirs - as they’ve already done – we’ll call them out.
When there’s a hospital or school opening and Labor cuts the ribbon, insinuating they built it – we’ll call them out.
When they get it wrong, like giving $16 million to UFC cage fighting, while in the same breath slashing Active Kids vouchers - we’ll call them out.
Conclusion
So we’re here to win the next election.
There’s a seat count within striking distance.
There’s strong renewal in our Parliamentary team.
There’s a set of strong values to underpin strong policies.
And there’s a Labor Government already making mistakes and breaking promises.
But winning elections requires hard work.
That work starts here in our party, building capability, and working with local communities.
That work continues with policy work guided by our Liberal values - and that always has people at its centre.
And we’ll work hard every day.
This is not a 12-year project.
This is not an eight-year project.
This is a four-year project - and that is my promise to you.