Twelve seats hang in the balance in the NSW election as an outgoing minister blames One Nation for helping boot some Liberals from parliament.
Premier-elect Chris Minns is tipped to lead a majority government with at least 47 seats as the Liberal Party looks for a new leader after Dominic Perrottet stepped down following Saturday's election loss.
Mr Minns and his Labor team will be sworn in by Governor Margaret Beazley in the coming days.
The first item on his agenda was "a tonne of reading" of briefs from the outgoing coalition government about the state of the budget followed by action to fulfil his promise to scrap the public sector wages cap.
"Every other state in Australia doesn't have a wages cap in place," he told 2GB on Monday.
"We think that we can have a sensible resolution and we've got to start that process.
"And then our immediate priority is to turn around results in emergency departments.
"It's going to be a rocky road. The challenges are immense."
ABC election analyst Antony Green said vote counting on Monday would probably firm up the likely outcome of the dozen seats in doubt.
Labor is ahead in the seats of Kiama, Miranda, Ryde and Terrigal, and is a chance in the Liberal-held seats of Drummoyne, Goulburn, Holsworthy and Oatley, he told ABC Radio.
The election featured a swing of about six per cent to Labor, which was dwarfed by the 16 per cent swing against the party when it lost government in 2011.
"It's taken Labor three elections to recover from the drubbing in 2011," Mr Green said.
Independents are threatening the blue-ribbon Liberal seats of Willoughby and Pittwater, but it's likely the major-party candidates will prevail after absentee votes are counted.
The Greens will likely hold off a strong Labor challenge in Balmain while the Liberal-held seat of Wollondilly will probably fall to independent Judy Hannan.
One experienced minister headed for the door, David Elliott, said the Liberal Party shouldn't gnash teeth after "12 cracking years" but needed to better define itself.
He pointed to Penrith, Camden and Wollondilly, where substantial One Nation primary votes "cost" the Liberal incumbents.
One Nation experienced small swings in those seats, having backed up from a strong showing in 2019.
"We just need to put some stakes in the ground, we need to map out exactly where the parish is and that needs to be defined a little bit better," Mr Elliott told 2GB.
"One Nation didn't get the high vote that some were saying but they certainly cost us seats in western Sydney."
Former cabinet minister Stuart Ayres and the Liberal Party are holding out hope he can hang onto Penrith on Sydney's western fringe.
Labor's Karen McKeown maintains a 2.5 per cent margin with 54 per cent of the count complete.
Mr Ayres was considered a contender to succeed Mr Perrottet along with current deputy and former treasurer Matt Kean, who ruled himself out of the contest on Sunday, saying he wanted to "hang out and be a dad" to his three-year-old son.
Other potential candidates include former attorney-general Mark Speakman, outgoing enterprise, investment and trade minister Alister Henskens and former planning minister Anthony Roberts.
