NSW Labor’s in the box seat for a second term. Does it deserve it?

April 9, 2026 — 5:00am

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A few months into my first stint working in NSW parliament, about a decade ago, a Labor staffer in a crumpled shirt came into my office, slumped in a chair and let out a deep sigh. Staring down at the stained orange carpet in the shoebox-sized cupboard I worked in at the back of the press gallery, he asked: “How many people who work in this building do you reckon wake up every morning and think, ‘F---, what have I done?’”

Those were dark days for the Labor Party in NSW. The then Liberal premier, Mike Baird, was riding high in the polls and his Coalition government – led by a core of apparently sensible, competent ministers – was basking in the riches of asset privatisations and record-low interest rates. It felt like a new major infrastructure project was being announced every second week.

Long years of opposition stretched ahead and behind the bedraggled, corruption-stained ALP.

Much has changed. My office today is a lot nicer, for one (we have a window), and the Labor staffers wear better suits and seem less consumed by existential dread.

Most significantly, with less than a........

© The Sydney Morning Herald