McKay out for NSW Labor, battle awaits

DEPARTING NSW LABOR LEADER JODI MCKAY:

* Born August 16, 1969 (age 51)

* Has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Sydney

* Married

* Worked as a journalist at Nine Network’s NBN for 15 years before leaving in 2002 to work in corporate communications

* Elected the member for Newcastle in 2007

* Held several ministerial portfolios including tourism, women, commerce and small business help before losing her seat in the 2011 election

* Returned to parliament at the 2015 election in the seat of Strathfield

* Became opposition leader in mid-2019 after a leadership contest with Kogarah MP Chris Minns, earning a majority in both the caucus and rank-and-file vote.

She took over from Michael Daley as NSW Labor leader

* Resigned as opposition leader on Friday after a disappointing result for Labor in the Upper Hunter by-election, earning 21 per cent of first-preference votes.

LIKELY NEXT NSW LABOR LEADER CHRIS MINNS:

* Born September 17, 1979 (age 41)

* Studied at Princeton University (US)

* Married with three children

* Joined the ALP at 18 and became the president of NSW Young Labor

* Former deputy mayor of Hurstville City Council

* Elected member for Kogarah in Sydney’s south in 2015 and became opposition water spokesman in 2016

* Ran in 2018 for the NSW Labor leadership, losing to Michael Daley, who led Labor to defeat in the 2019 state election

* Contested and lost to Ms McKay in the 2019 leadership ballot, but became NSW Labor transport spokesman

* Resigned his front bench position on Wednesday after a purported “dirt file” was circulated to the media by the office of NSW Labor deputy leader Yasmin Catley

* Said after his resignation that NSW Labor had been too “negative” amid the COVID-19 pandemic and needed to more closely address voter concerns, rather than solely criticising the coalition government

* Did not publicly challenge Ms McKay’s leadership before her resignation on Friday, but is now frontrunner to claim the top job.

POTENTIAL LEADERSHIP CHALLENGER MICHAEL DALEY:

* Born November 1, 1965 (age 55)

* Married with four children

* Before parliament, he was a senior corporate lawyer at NRMA Motoring & Services.

Admitted to the Supreme Court of NSW as a legal practitioner in 1998

* Served as a councillor on Randwick City Council for 13 years, including four years as deputy mayor

* Elected to NSW parliament in September 2005 as the member for Maroubra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs

* Served as minister for Roads, Police and Finance between 2009 and 2011 under Labor premiers Nathan Rees and Kristina Keneally

* Served as NSW opposition leader between November 2018 and March 2019, taking over from Luke Foley

* Led Labor to its 2019 state election defeat, including a disastrous final week of campaigning in which he was caught on tape accusing Asian migrants of taking local jobs.

He also stumbled over key Labor education policy numbers in a live television debate.

* Has sat on the back bench since vacating the Labor leadership in 2019, and this week declared his support for Ms McKay’s continued leadership.