Paul Toole has been sworn in as the new deputy premier of New South Wales after he was elected leader of the state Nationals in a party room ballot.
The former teacher turned politician beat the water minister, Melinda Pavey, 15 votes to three to replace outgoing NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier John Barilaro.
Toole had been serving as the minister for regional transport and roads and previously held the racing, local government and land and forestry portfolios.
Speaking briefly after the party room meeting, Toole said: “I tell you what, I’m looking forward to getting back to work.”
Later in the day, Toole said he wanted “to make sure we get back to work and it’s business as usual because the people of this state have been doing it tough now for a number of years”.
“What’s important here is that we actually get on with the job,” the new Nationals leader said.
Toole said he would fight for investment in regional NSW. He thanked Barilaro for being “ferocious” and “a champion of the bush” and also paid tribute to ex-premier Gladys Berejiklian for leading the state through the pandemic as well as the black summer bushfires, drought and floods.
Before entering parliament alongside Barilaro in 2011, Toole had already amassed decades of service in Bathurst in the central tablelands.
The Kelso local worked as a primary school teacher for almost 20 years before joining the local council in 1995. Some 12 years later he became the council’s mayor.
In 2011, the father-of-three made the switch to state politics, winning in a landslide and converting Bathurst from a safe Labor seat to a safe Nationals one.
As the new leader of the junior Coalition partner, Toole will be influential in shaping the state’s direction under Dominic Perrottet’s government.
Perrottet, who replaced Berejiklian as premier on Tuesday, said he had come to know Toole well after working together on expenditure review in the crisis cabinet. The premier called him an “incredible fighter for regional NSW”.
Toole had been deputy leader of the NSW Nationals and his ascension to leader on Wednesday meant his party deputy leadership was vacant.
Bronnie Taylor, an upper house MP and mental health minister, was elected unopposed to the position of deputy leader of the NSW Nationals.
Toole and Taylor were sworn in at Government House on Wednesday afternoon, alongside other appointees including Rob Stokes – the planning minister who lost to Perrottet in the Liberal party ballot on Tuesday – who will take on the additional portfolio of transport vacated by Andrew Constance’s resignation.
Perrottet has indicated there will be a cabinet reshuffle over the summer break, by which time it is expected byelections for the seats held by Berejiklian, Barilaro and Constance will have taken place.
Toole had been the frontrunner for the Nationals top job, given his seniority in the party, with one Nationals MP telling Guardian Australia there had been a sense of frustration that Pavey had signalled her candidacy so soon after Barilaro’s resignation announcement.
Barilaro announced on Monday he would quit state politics days after the shock resignation of Berejiklian, saying NSW needed a “new beginning”.
Meanwhile, Berejiklian visited her electorate office in Northbridge on Wednesday morning, where flowers and messages of support had been left by local supporters in the days since she announced her resignation on Friday.
Berejiklian said she thought Perrottet would be “an outstanding leader”.
“I just want to say a big thank you to everyone, it has been an enormous comfort … and I want everyone to get behind premier Perrottet,” she said. “I want everyone to know that I will read every single card, every single message.”
Berejiklian stood down after the Independent Commission Against Corruption announced it was investigating whether she had been involved in “a breach of public trust” between 2012 and 2018 because of her relationship with the former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.
– With Australian Associated Press
