Hunter Labor MPs wasted no time on Tuesday spelling out their party's battle plan against Dominic Perrottet.
The Liberal party room had barely voted in their new leader and the state's 46th premier before Swansea MP Yasmin Catley, the shadow minister for the Hunter, and her local caucus colleagues fired off a statement attacking Mr Perrottet's record.
"Perrottet was the treasurer that oversaw the privatisation of TAFE campuses across our state, along with the privatisation of Newcastle buses," Ms Catley said.
She also singled him out as the architect of the state's scandal-plagued workers compensation insurer, iCare, and urged him to stop government pork-barrelling.
Gladys Berejiklian's resignation on Friday was a gift to NSW Labor and its new leader, Chris Minns.
Ms Berejiklian's rock-star popularity with the electorate appeared bullet-proof, surviving revelations about her secret relationship with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire and questions about her handling of the four-month COVID-19 outbreak in NSW.
Mr Perrottet now has 18 months before the next election to establish his credentials as a competent leader.
A rebounding economy next year will greatly enhance his chances of extending the Liberals' 12-year reign.
The former treasurer is widely considered to be more gung-ho about a quick reopening after months of lockdowns, though on Tuesday he backed away from talk he would bring forward the new freedoms to Friday.
It is difficult to gauge what impact Ms Berejiklian's exit will have in the Hunter. The ex-premier had a chequered history in the region which included being heckled by rail advocates in 2015 and a train-crash media conference to launch light rail in 2019. She was rumoured to have developed a personal dislike for Newcastle.
As a former treasurer herself, she was involved in the privatisation of the city's port, but it appears unlikely Mr Perrottet will be any more open to scrapping controversial container fees once the ACCC's legal battle with NSW Ports and the government has run its course.
Ms Berejiklian vowed before the 2019 election to extend Newcastle's 2.7-kilometre tram line into the suburbs, but the government has been notably silent on the issue since then and another architect of the project, Transport Minister Andrew Constance, is also about to take his leave from Macquarie Street.
With at least three by-elections on the horizon and Sydney's west shaping as the next electoral battleground, the Hunter is likely to remain peripheral to the state's politics for the foreseeable future.
The upcoming federal election may be a different story, however.
In the news
- Perrottet 'ready to begin new chapter for NSW
- Lake Macquarie cases surge as Hunter adds 65 COVID infections
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- Woman dead, man in serious condition after Tea Gardens crash
- Hunter won't hit vaccine targets by October 11, data shows
- Super Saturday of elections may be on cards for NSW after resignations
