Early history The NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party, known as the
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales from 1891 to 1917, first won 35 of the 141 seats in the NSW parliament at the
1891 election. The initial caucus voted against appointing a leader and the party was directed by a steering committee of five members until, following a request from the party's extra-parliamentary executive,
Joseph Cook was elected as the first leader in 1893. Cook left the party in the following year when he was obliged to sign a pledge that he would support all caucus decisions in parliament.
James McGowen, who signed the pledge, succeeded Cook as party leader in 1894. At the
1894 state election Labor representation was reduced to 18. After the
1898 election, Labor held the balance of power with
George Reid's
Free Trade government being dependent on Labor to push through New South Wales' adoption of
Federation. McGowen's support for Federation was critical to Labor maintaining its support for the adoption of measures to implement Federation, even though the party remained opposed to the adopted Constitution, which it saw as biased in favour of business interests. The
1904 state election saw Labor become the second largest party and the official opposition for the first time.
First government in New South Wales and internal divisions At the 1910 election, the Labor Party first won government in NSW with a slim majority of 46 of 90 seats; as a result, McGowen was premier from 1910 to 1913. But increasing success was accompanied by increasing tensions within the labour movement: from the 1890s the
Australian Workers' Union attempted to assert its influence on the NSW parliamentary party, with little success for many years. Divisions also opened up between state and federal Labor after
Andrew Fisher took office as Prime Minister of the
first federal Labor government in 1908:
William Holman, the NSW party's main parliamentary strategist at the time, presented a policy agenda at state party conferences which differed from that approved by the federal party, in particular in its opposition to the transfer of responsibilities for finance and industrial relations from the state to the Commonwealth government, a dispute in which the AWU sided with the ALP. Tensions continued to rise during McGowen's premiership, as McGowen and Holman refused to support the holding of the
1911 trade and commerce referendum favoured by the ALP: in addition Holman alienated extra-parliamentary Labor members and some of the NSW caucus by appointing a number of new members to the state's
Legislative Council, including some who were not Labor members. This ran counter to the state party's platform, which advocated for the abolition of the Council, something which was not attempted by the state Labor governments of the 1910s, and which was a divisive issue in the party at the time. As the result of a dispute with a party executive, dominated by the
Australian Workers' Union, Dooley was expelled from the party in February 1923 and replaced by
Greg McGirr as leader, but the
Federal Executive intervened and appointed
Bill Dunn as an interim leader until
Jack Lang was elected by the caucus, with the support of more radical unions, most prominently Albert Willis and his
Australian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation. The ALP was defeated at the
1927 election but won in a landslide at the
1930 election. Lang opposed the
Premiers' Plan to combat the
Great Depression agreed to by the federal Labor government of
James Scullin and the other state Premiers, who called for even more stringent cuts to government spending to balance the budget. In March 1931, the NSW branch of the party was expelled by the
Federal Executive in the
Federal Conference. In October 1931, Lang's followers in the federal House of Representatives crossed the floor to vote with the conservative
United Australia Party and bring down the Scullin government. This action split the NSW Labor Party in two – Lang's followers and the expelled NSW branch became known as
Lang Labor, while Scullin's supporters, led by Chifley, became known in NSW as
Federal Labor. Most of the party's branches and affiliated trade unions supported Lang. Furthermore, Lang's persistence with his plan led to the
Lang Dismissal Crisis in 1931–32 which led to his dismissal as premier by the State Governor on 13 May 1932. The Governor appointed the UAP leader,
Bertram Stevens, as premier and Stevens immediately called the
1932 election, at which Labor was heavily defeated. In February 1936, the NSW branch rejoined the Australian Labor Party and became the official NSW branch of the ALP again. Federal Labor was then abolished. Lang's lack of success at state elections eroded his support within the labour movement. He had not won a state election since 1930. This led some members of caucus, including
Bob Heffron, to break away to form the
Industrial Labor Party. In 1939, following intervention by the Federal Executive, the two factions were reunited at a state conference. This gathering also reversed the "red rules" and returned the power of selecting the party leader to the caucus. Lang was deposed in 1939.
McKell and post-war era William McKell became party leader, reuniting and rejuvenating the party. Under his leadership the extreme left wing of the party had been expelled and had contested the
1941 election as the far left wing
State Labor Party. McKell led Labor to a convincing victory and became Premier. State Labor's poor showing had resulted in its dissolution shortly after the election. During
World War II McKell became a close collaborator of Labor Prime Ministers
John Curtin and
Ben Chifley, being a particularly close friend of the latter. Labor unity was again threatened by Jack Lang who had been expelled from the Labor Party in 1943 and formed another version of the
Lang Labor Party. On this occasion he received no support from the rest of the caucus and spent the rest of the term as the sole member. At the
1944 election McKell won another victory, the first time a New South Wales Labor government had been re-elected. On early 1947 he resigned and announced acceptance of appointment as
Governor General.
James McGirr was elected leader and premier and led Labor to another victory at the
1947 election. McGirr nearly lost the
1950 election and was replaced in 1952 by
Joseph Cahill. In August 1953, two
Fairfield aldermen − including a former
mayor − split from ALP to form the
Official Labour Movement. Although it won two seats at the
local government elections in December 1953, it failed to defeat the ALP at state or federal elections and faded away soon after.
Labor in government, 1952–1965 Cahill decisively won the
1953 election. He was desperate to keep the New South Wales branch of the ALP united despite the sectarian and ideological split that resulted in the formation of the right-wing
Democratic Labor Party in 1954. He achieved this by controlling the anti-DLP faction in his party. The DLP did not contest the
1956 election, which Labor won. Cahill was returned in the
1959 election, but died in office later that year. He was succeeded as leader and premier by
Bob Heffron. Heffron continued the Labor reign in New South Wales winning the
1962 election. Heffron resigned the leadership and premiership in 1964, and was succeeded by
Jack Renshaw, who lost the premiership at the
1965 election ending 24 years of Labor power in the state.
Opposition, 1965–1976 Renshaw also lost the
1968 election, after which he resigned the leadership, to be succeeded by
Pat Hills. Hills lost the
1971 and
1973 election after which he was deposed by
Neville Wran.
Wran–Unsworth era, 1976–1988 Wran narrowly won the
1976 election and remained premier until 1986, winning two
Landslide victory's popularly known as the "Wranslide." In
1978 election and
1981 election. He was succeeded by
Barrie Unsworth who took over the premiership until Labor's loss at the
1988 election, after which he resigned.
Carr era, 1988–2005 Bob Carr became leader in 1988 and led Labor to victory in the
1995 election. Carr was premier for 10 years, before resigning in 2005. He was the longest continuous-serving premier in New South Wales.
Iemma era, 2005–2008 Carr was succeeded by
Morris Iemma. At the time, the state transport network was inferior, and public transport was often criticised as the most stark example of Carr's inaction. Iemma and the
Treasurer Michael Costa supported the idea to sidestep the high costs and industrial risks of the existing RailCorp network and instead begin building a new rapid transit rail system in parallel. The new system would incorporate smaller, lighter rolling stock, reducing construction costs, and be operated by the private sector, reducing operating costs. But despite the savings available via the rapid transit option, the costs were still beyond the state's means. Iemma comfortably won the
2007 election with the loss of only four seats. His strategy was to draw a line under the failures of the Carr era and ask the electorate for another chance. The Opposition ran a poor campaign, and the electorate was minded to trust the affable, hard-working new premier. Iemma was returned but with far less political capital than the size of Labor's majority would suggest.
Proposed electricity privatisation Journalist Simon Benson describes a crucial meeting in late 2007 between Iemma and Labor state president
Bernie Riordan during the height of the furore over electricity privatisation: [Iemma] had laid out on his desk a spreadsheet of infrastructure projects … On the bottom half were all the projects the state needed if it was to avoid choking on its own congestion within the next decade. It amounted to more than $25 billion. And that was what they hadn't even announced."This is why I am the Premier," he told Riordan, emphasising his belief that it was critical for the privatisation to succeed. "These [projects] need to be done. I need to do these." Along with his plan to sell the government's electricity generation and retailing companies, Iemma announced a massive infrastructure scheme involving
South West Rail Link, an inner city motorway network, and the
Metro Link network, a system of underground, privately operated, single-deck, automated trains. The government planned to use up to $3 billion from the sale of retail electricity to help fund the inner city motorway network, linking the
M4 Western Motorway to the
CBD and the
airport The
Electrical Trades Union (ETU) was ideologically opposed to the privatisation of the electricity businesses and led opposition to the plan. The ETU's secretary, Bernie Riordan, was also the president of NSW Labor. The secretary of the
Unions NSW,
John Robertson, was also a member of the ETU and opposed the privatisation. The party secretary,
Karl Bitar, and his deputy,
Luke Foley, were less ideologically committed on the issue, but their polling showed that the public was against a sale and – more importantly – tiring of Iemma and his team. They too came down against Iemma's plan. Two members of the party's
Socialist Left faction, upper house MPs
Lynda Voltz and
Ian West, succumbed to the pressure and announced that they would vote against the party on privatisation. Had the vote gone ahead, it would have been the first instance of a Labor MP '
crossing the floor' in 14 years of government. The
Liberal Opposition, led by moderate
Barry O'Farrell, saw an opportunity to wound Iemma by denying him the opportunity to build the metro. Together, West, Voltz, the
Greens and the Opposition had the numbers to defeat the Government in the upper house in August 2008. On 3 September 2008,
Deputy Premier and Transport Minister
John Watkins announced he was going to retire for family reasons, triggering a cabinet reshuffle. On 4 September 2008, Costa was advised by Iemma that he would no longer be in the forthcoming reshuffle and hence dumped as Treasurer. Iemma had also proposed that other ministers would be dumped, including Health Minister
Reba Meagher. Iemma's faction, Centre Unity, supported the sacking of the Treasurer but not the other four Ministers. The following day, right-wing Labor powerbrokers
Eddie Obeid and
Joe Tripodi told Iemma that he had lost the support of MPs and would not survive a caucus meeting.
Nathan Rees also walked into the meeting with a number of Labor MPs announcing he had the numbers to overthrow Iemma. Seeing that he had lost the support of his caucus faction, Iemma resigned as leader and Premier. He was replaced by Rees as leader and Premier.
Rees and Keneally era, 2008–2011 Rees was leader and premier for only 15 months before he was deposed by
Kristina Keneally, who resigned after Labor was defeated in a landslide at the
2011 election.
Opposition, 2011–2023 Keneally was succeeded by
John Robertson. He resigned in December 2014, after the
2014 Sydney hostage crisis, after it was revealed that he had had contact with
Man Haron Monis, who was one of Robertson's constituents. On 5 January 2015
Luke Foley was elected leader. In the
2015 state election, Labor achieved a 9.9-point two-party-preferred swing, but the Coalition comfortably retained government. Foley resigned in November 2018 in the face of sexual assault allegations, and was succeeded by
Michael Daley in the resulting
leadership contest. In the
2019 election, the party recorded a small TPP swing in its favour and won two seats, but remained in opposition. On 25 March 2019, Daley announced his intention to step down as leader.
Penny Sharpe, who was elected deputy leader in November 2018, served as interim leader until the
leadership ballot was held in June;
Jodi McKay was elected leader. In May 2021, McKay resigned the leadership, and was replaced by
Chris Minns on 4 June 2021.
Minns era, 2021–present 2021–2023 After going through five leaders since the
2011 state election, which included four leadership elections (
2015,
2018,
2019,
2021), New South Wales Labor, led by
Leader of the Opposition and
right-faction MP for
Kogarah Chris Minns, won back the state after in opposition. Minns had been leader of the party since
June 2021 after being elected unopposed following the resignation of former leader
Jodi McKay. Minns announced his
shadow ministry over the following week, with a "focus on working families,
Western Sydney and the cost-of-living..." Months after becoming leader of the party Minns reiterated his party's plan to invest in
Western Sydney after stating at the Labor Party state conference that his party would scrap the
Beaches Link and redirect the funds ($10 billion) to public transport infrastructure to Greater Western Sydney. He also criticised the privatisation of
WestConnex, stating: "Look at the circumstances surrounding the privatisation of WestConnex... just one road as part of the WestConnex network will make $28 billion from the pockets of the families of western Sydney". By the time of the 2023 state election, the party had a myriad of key election promises, including: scrapping the public-sector wages cap; "Improve conditions for tenants by establishing a Rental Commissioner to advocate for renters, allowing renters to directly transfer bonds from one property to another, outlawing secret rental bidding, and listing reasonable grounds for owners to end a lease (to stop unfair evictions);" "ensure the trains are built in New South Wales, creating at least 1,000 jobs;" "establish TAFE manufacturing centres so every year, an extra 1,000 apprentices can be trained in skills like mechanical engineering and electrical fitting for free;" At the time Minns was appointed leader of the party, the
Premier of New South Wales was
Liberal Party leader
Gladys Berejiklian. However, four months later Berejiklian was replaced by
Dominic Perrottet. Initially opinion polls remained fairly steady, with the
Liberal–
National Coalition government losing one to two points. By September 2022 ( after Minns became party leader) the party took the lead in the primary vote polls for the first time in over a decade, and maintained the
two-party-preferred opinion poll consistently until the
state election.
ABC News stated, following the election, that "Labor's pledge to scrap the Coalition's public-sector wages cap was, in hindsight, instrumental in delivering the party majority government." Since coming into office the party has officially achieved two election commitments: enshrining
Sydney Water and
Hunter Water as permanent public institutions via a
Constitutional amendment; raising the stamp duty exemption threshold for first-home buyers from $650k to $800k. == Attempted party reforms ==