The election posters have come down. Incoming Premier Chris Minns and his ministers have been sworn in and several department heads given their marching orders.
But once again, power has been transferred peacefully and a little quaintly, with photographs and cups of tea on the NSW Governor’s front lawn.
It was outgoing Member for Ryde Victor Dominello who put it best.
“We are so fortunate in Australia, as we are generally governed from the centre,” he opined on Facebook.
“Ebbing and flowing between centre left and centre right governments. The people of NSW decided it was time to lead with the other foot.”
Plainly, the new government is taking advantage of a temporary vacuum to recast the political narrative. In particular, the new Premier’s willingness to countenance changes to the route of Metro West (linking Westmead to the city) will find plenty of local supporters.
Given the massive population density, it makes no sense for there to be no other stop between Parramatta and Olympic Park – with arguments about the future of Camellia already being revived.
Expect more repositioning in the weeks ahead as the financial books are dissected. History is encouraging, even though Labor has come up short of a Parliamentary majority.
Both Bob Carr and Neville Wran barely fell over the line at their first election before going on to govern for a decade. There is no reason why a steady, prudent Minns government that builds public confidence in its agenda and managerial abilities won’t do the same.
As many readers would know, I’ve been far from a dispassionate observer of these events. At the eleventh hour, I was nominated by Labor as its state candidate for Epping – in a rematch of my 2019 contest against Dominic Perrottet.
How to pay justice to the month of mayhem that followed?
At this election, the Epping seat was redrawn further into City of Parramatta – taking in the likes of Carlingford, North Rocks, Telopea, Oatlands and Dundas Valley, as well as more traditional blue-ribbon territory in Beecroft.
So much of the short campaign was about making up for lost time. Designing flyers on my phone. Scrambling to pull together a launch within days. Building up name recognition by waving at cars by the roadside. Going on late-night poster runs with the team – then squeezing in some sleep before attempting to present as a vaguely upstanding member of society at the train station at 6.30am.
Partisan politics aside, it is an honour to be a candidate. For a precious window of time, people let you into their lives and you get to feel the community pulse. At any given moment, you could be asked why all the bank branches have left Epping, your opinion of gender reassignment surgery or how to mitigate traffic noise on the M2.
Some issues have an ideological dimension. For example, it was clear that nurses and teachers, burned out after the tough COVID years, were voting heavily against the Liberals’ public sector wages cap.
Yet many residents simply look to candidates as a vessel to channel their hopes for their local community.
So I got showed the frantic afternoon pickup at Carlingford West, where three large schools empty out at the same time.
I drove the narrow streets of Dundas Valley, where duplexes are multiplying infrastructure pressures on a suburb built for a different era.
In Telopea, I heard from local businesses frustrated by the delayed light rail and failure to crackdown on graffiti or even perform basic clean-ups.
Labor had a resounding win in the Parramatta seat – a result always likely with the exit of long-term Liberal member Geoff Lee.
Here, a demographic tidal wave of students, young professionals, public sector workers, aspirational migrants and renters almost leave the Liberals as victims of their own handiwork in establishing Parramatta as a new CBD.
My experience was that it is the suburbs where the strains are being felt. Places like Epping, Carlingford and North Rocks are experiencing Parramatta’s growing pains, but now need attention and investment.
Congratulations to Premier Minns who has won a mandate.
But the Liberals are close enough that whether Labor gets another go in 2027 will depend squarely on how it performs.
Alan is a journalist and communications specialist. He writes a weekly column for Parra News.