Mike Baird has expressed a hope to work with Labor on reforms to clean up political donations – which forced 10 Liberal MPs to stand aside or resign after evidence from the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Baird, who won a second term of government on Saturday, said he appreciated Luke Foley’s gracious concession speech and hoped the major parties could “put politics out the door” on some issues.
“I think there is things that we can potentially work on together,” said Baird. “I think the charter I put forward in terms of cleaning up politics such as donation reform, that is a good opportunity for us to work together.”
Asked whether it would be herald a new era of collaboration, Baird said: “I don’t know if it will be a new era of collaboration, that may be a bit much. There are things that you can put politics out the door”.
Baird used his victory to claim a mandate for the privatisation of the electricity network, which remained a key issue of the NSW election campaign.
While a majority of voters were opposed to privatisation, the Coalition government achieved a comfortable victory, although their majority has been whittled down to possibly 53 in a 93 seat parliament. Labor is hopeful of winning between 10-14 seats on a swing of nearly 9%.
The Greens had a particularly strong result, having picked up the new electorate of Newtown, held the very marginal seat of Balmain against Labor and won two National party strongholds in the northern rivers of Lismore and Ballina. The Greens will hold four seats in the lower house and the party’s vote at 10.3% on latest figures is now higher than the National party at 9.9%.
The victory is Mike Baird’s first campaign win as premier and on Sunday, he warned Labor and the upper house that he had a strong mandate to complete his electricity privatisation plan.
Baird said the given the Coalition had been “open” with voters regarding the privatisation, he urged the upper house members, including Christian Democratic party leader Fred Nile and the Labor opposition to respect his mandate.
“A mandate has been provided and I saw the former treasurer Michael Egan saying on television last night that the opposition had an opportunity to respect that mandate.”
The final make up of the upper house will remain unclear until next week but according to the latest figures, the Liberal and National party suffered a swing against it of 4.5%.
Baird said he would spend the next few days considering a cabinet reshuffle. Transport minister Gladys Berejiklian has been mooted for the treasury role, as part of a deal cut when Baird came to the premiership. Berejiklian was the other leadership contender. Half of the privatisation deal delivers a $20bn infrastructure package.
There may be implications for the National party given their poor performance. The Coalition partner’s cabinet positions are worked out on a ratio of seats. Once the final count is completed, it is understood the ratio will be considered though one Liberal source said Baird would not want to “pick a fight” while trying to get privatisation through the upper house.
The other moves considered is giving the planning portfolio to environment minister Rob Stokes to planning to replace Pru Goward. And Nationals leader and former policeman Troy Grant is mooted by some for a justice portfolio.
Luke Foley said the election result suggested Labor could win 14 seats and put Labor in a winning position, needing a swing of only 5% at the next election to win government.
He said Labor opposed privatisation but would not commit to the party’s post-election position on the issue.
“I’ve got too much respect for my caucus colleagues and for my party colleagues to pre-empt Labor discussions, but I do say that we took to the election the policy we’ve taken to every election in the State’s history to keep the monopoly electricity network in public hands,” said Foley.
“It is my expectation that that will be our policy from here on in, but I do make the point that there will be caucus democracy and party democracy and any and all policy questions will be discussed openly, in the appropriate forums.”
The NSW Labor party has been riven by the issue over the past decade, with former premier Morris Iemma losing his leadership over it and during the latest campaign, former NSW treasurer Michael Costa spoke out in favour of Baird’s privatisation plan. If Mike Baird were to successfully steer the privatisation through the upper house, it would take the issue off the table for Labor.
