19 January | Reform & Precinct Tracker

Please see below January’s edition of the PremierNational Property, Planning and Infrastructure ‘Reform & Precinct Tracker’. This is a monthly newsletter prepared by PremierNational to track the progress of major NSW Government policy and regulatory proposals from the initial announcement through to implementation.

Included in this email, you will also find some high-level PremierNational insights into the Leader of the Opposition, Chris Minns.

Please contact our Director Ilana Waldman, Special Counsel Lino Caccavo or Special Counsel Antony Anisse if you have any questions with respect to any of these items.

QUICK REFORM PROGRESS OVERVIEW

REFORM + PRECINCT TRACKER

Chris Minns was elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly as the member for Kogarah for the Labor Party in 2015 and currently serves as the Leader of the Opposition.

Before politics, Minns worked at a young mental health charity, as a firefighter, as an advisor to Carl Scully and John Robertson in the NSW government and as the Assistant Secretary of the Labor Party. In 2004, Minns was first elected as a councillor of the Hurstville City Council before being elected for a term as deputy mayor from 2007-2008.

Minns has previously called for reduced union influence in the Labor party and hasn’t always been supported by the broader NSW Union Movement during his previously unsuccessful bids for party leadership, losing first to Michael Daley in 2018 and then Jodi McKay in 2019 before successfully securing party leadership following Jodi McKay’s resignation shortly after the Upper Hunter by-election in May 2021.

If elected, Minns has promised to work with both unions and the private sector in the interest of all NSW residents.

Minns holds Labor’s most marginal seat at 0.1%, which means it must be monitored by Labor HQ during the election campaign.

Minns has focused heavily on the cost-of-living crisis with an ongoing campaign against the cost of tolls, which particularly hurts those in Western Sydney, where the election is to be considered won or lost. He has focused on local manufacturing and is expected to remain disciplined and measured in his approach from now until the March election by prosecuting key issues like housing affordability and addressing the health and education crisis.

He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of New England and a Masters in Public Policy from Princeton University.