McKay says she can beat the Liberal premier and education will be a ‘critical issue’ under her leadership

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Newly elected New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay says she is “more than a match” for the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and she is not going to be pretend the two women are anything alike.

McKay’s election on Saturday was a landmark moment in NSW politics, making it the first time the premier and opposition leader have both been women.

“I’m not going to pretend I’m Gladys – I am not,” the Strathfield MP told reporters in Sydney’s inner-west on Sunday.

Jodi McKay elected New South Wales Labor leader after tense meeting Read more

“We’re very different ... I care very deeply about people. I believe that if you are in politics you are there to serve people, and I think people have fallen through the cracks and they’ve been left behind.”

McKay emphatically won the ballot against Chris Minns, getting 60.5% of the vote, some three months after Michael Daley quit following Labor’s state election loss. McKay secured 29 votes to Minns’s 21 in the caucus, and gained 63% of 10,822 rank-and-file votes.

The former journalist said the Labor party is united in “getting rid of” the Berejiklian government, amid questions of division between its own members. She described the government as “really hollow” and “transactional”.

“This morning I’ve received so many calls and texts from my party colleagues, some of them who didn’t support me, who just want us to get on with the job because we have unity in a purpose to get rid of this government,” McKay said.

“I know that my colleagues are very much committed to ensuring a Labor win in 2023.”

McKay, who grew up in Gloucester on the NSW mid-north coast, highlighted her “record of standing up to powerful and vested interests” during her month-long campaign for the top job.

She said reaching out to rural NSW, western Sydney and multicultural communities would be a priority under her leadership, and education policy was a “critical issue”.

“I want to talk about people ... and there are issues like homelessness in my area and also in areas right across Sydney that have to be addressed,” she said.

McKay pledged to channel the competency, trust and “extraordinary vision” of the former premier Neville Wran in an attempt to beat Berejiklian in four years.

“He also got out of Macquarie Street and he travelled,” she said. “He spoke about who he was, what he wanted to do and how the Labor party could help everyone in this state, and that is the type of leader that I want to be.”

The late Wran won three elections as Labor leader, serving as premier from 1976 until he resigned in 1986.

The federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, offered his congratulations to McKay on Sunday morning. “A progressive woman of integrity and principle with experience and great connections to communities,” Albanese tweeted.

The NSW Labor deputy leader and shadow cabinet is yet to be decided – awaiting a caucus vote on executive roles on Tuesday – but McKay said Minns would “absolutely” be part of her new look team.

Daley “certainly hasn’t asked” to be in the shadow ministry, she said.