NSW election 2023: Treasurer Matt Kean and Transport Minister David Elliott’s warnings for coalition

The blame game has begun for the Liberal party with a string of high-level figures conceding defeat less than an hour into the count. 

Chris Minns and the NSW Labor Party are predicted to win majority government in a landslide.

State Treasurer Matt Kean and Transport Minister David Elliot were quick to make bleak predictions for the Coalition, who are trying to win a fourth term in government.

Former government minister David Elliott said there is no pathway for the Coalition to win the election.

‘I can’t see a pathway to victory for us, again with the swings against us we’re seeing in western Sydney,’ he said.

‘Stuart Ayres, tragically will probably not be returned which is a shame because I saw him as a future opposition leader’.

He added that the seat of Pittwater would also be ‘difficult’ for the party to win.  

It came after he called the situation in the seat of Parramatta ‘inexcusable’ for the Liberal party and cast doubt over whether they would retain his seat of Castle Hill.

As polling booths across the state closed, Mr Kean said the ‘deck is stacked against us’.

‘It would be a historic victory because it hasn’t been done before, four terms, so fighting the tide of history is like fighting gravity,’ he told the ABC.

‘The challenge for us was to present ourselves as a new government, not the reiteration of a 12-year-old government.

‘We really tried to demonstrate that we had fresh ideas.’

Mr Elliott said earlier the preliminary numbers were ‘not good news’ for the Liberal Party.

© Provided by Daily Mail NSW premier Dominic Perrottet pictured casting his vote on Saturday

‘There have been significant swings against us in western and north western Sydney and even in Castle Hill the Liberal vote is only 40 per cent with Labor at 35 and the Greens at 9,’ he told Channel 7’s election panel.

‘But it’s going to be a long night, and don’t forget there have been so many pre-polls this election.’

To win a majority government (47 seats), Labor needs to keep all their 38 seats and pick up another nine from the Coalition; however, the party believes it could also achieve a minority government with five seats.

Counting began at 6pm, after polling booths closed. The NSW Electoral Commission will also run a Virtual Tally Room from 6pm, where results will by published throughout the night.

© Provided by Daily Mail NSW Transport Minister David Elliott said the early numbers were ‘not good news’ for the Liberal Party

What time will we get a result tonight?

Whether or not there is a clear result on Saturday night, the vote count will stop at 10.30pm and won’t resume till Monday.

In the event of a minority government – in which neither major party wins more than 47 seats – both Labor and the Coalition will need to get the support of the minor parties and Independents in order to create the next parliament.

Campaigning on the eve of the election, the Labor leader said he believed it would ‘come down to the wire’.

‘I do believe it’s going to be tight,’ he said.

‘Most NSW elections, except for a few here and there, are tight contests, and I think that we’ve always known that.’

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