NSW election 2023: Treasurer Matt Kean and Transport Minister David Elliott’s warnings for coalition
Matt Kean #MattKean
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 have won majority government in a landslide with Dominic Perrottet stepping down as state Liberal leader.
Former deputy Liberal leader Stuart Ayres also appears unlikely to retain his seat in Penrith.
‘As a party, we’ve got to make sure we really have a good hard look at everything that’s happened in the lead-up to this campaign,’ Mr Ayres told Sky News.
‘We’ve been a party that’s always had such a broad base and we’ve got to be able to continue to be that party.’
State Treasurer Matt Kean and Transport Minister David Elliot were also quick to make bleak predictions for the Coalition.
Mr Elliott said there was ‘no pathway’ for the Coalition to win the vote.
‘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 closely held seat of Pittwater would 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.
‘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.’
Labor have already won 47 seats, even to win a majority government, with the Coalition picking up just 28 as the count continues.
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.
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