An election for the leadership of the New South Wales branch of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

, the party of opposition in the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, was held on 5 January 2015. The election was triggered following the resignation of

Opposition Leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

John Robertson John, Jon, or Jonathan Robertson may refer to: Politicians United Kingdom politicians * J. M. Robertson (John Mackinnon Robertson, 1856–1933), British journalist and Liberal MP for Tyneside 1906–1918 *John Robertson (Bothwell MP) (1867–1926) ...

on 23 December 2014. It elected Shadow Environment Minister

Luke Foley Luke Aquinas Foley (born 27 July 1970) is a former Australian Labor Party politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from 2015 to 2018. Foley was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Counci ...

as the next parliamentary Leader of the New South Wales Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition in the lead-up to the March election, despite Foley not holding a seat in the Legislative Assembly. In the lead-up to the election, Deputy Leader

Linda Burney Linda Jean Burney (born 25 April 1957) is an Australian politician and is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing Barton since the 2016 federal election. She is Minister for Indigenous Australi ...

, served as interim Leader of the Opposition and she continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly after the election.

Background

The

Liberal–National Coalition The Liberal–National Coalition, commonly known simply as "the Coalition" or informally as the LNP, is an political alliance, alliance of Centre-right politics, centre-right political parties that forms one of the two major groupings in Politic ...

won the 2011 election in a

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geol ...

, reducing the parliamentary Labor party to twenty seats in the Legislative Assembly. In the aftermath, Transport Minister

was elected as leader of the Labor Party in opposition with Linda Burney appointed as his deputy. Following revelations that Robertson had sent a letter on behalf of the

2014 Sydney hostage crisis The Lindt Cafe siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney, A ...

gunman,

Man Haron Monis Man Haron Monis (born Mohammed Hassan Manteghi Borujerdi; 19 May 1964 – 16 December 2014) was an Iranian-born refugee and Australian citizen who took hostages in a siege at the Lindt Chocolate Café at Martin Place, Sydney on 15 Decem ...

, a constituent in his Blacktown electorate, to the Department of Family and Community Services in support of Monis' request for a supervised visit with his children on Father's Day in 2011, pressure mounted on Robertson to resign as Leader of the Labor Party. Robertson announced his resignation on 23 December 2014 with the 2015 state election three months away. The first nominee to announce their candidacy for the leadership was Shadow Treasurer

Michael Daley Michael John Daley (born 1 November 1965) is an Australian politician who was the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from November 2018 to March 2019. He is currently a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assemb ...

, who was followed by Shadow Police Minister

Steve Whan Steven James Robert Whan (born 11 February 1964) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2011 to 2015. Whan represented the electoral district of Monaro in the New South Wales Legislati ...

on 24 December. While many within the party favoured Shadow Environment Minister

to succeed Robertson, his position in the Legislative Council made it difficult for him to lead the parliamentary party with all Labor preselections for winnable Legislative Assembly seats already decided excepting

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

, a seat involved in an internal dispute between incumbent MP Barbara Perry and her challenger, Auburn councillor Hicham Zraika, whom Perry accused of branch-stacking. On 29 December, Foley announced that he would contest the leadership and the Auburn pre-selection. Following Foley's announcement, Steve Whan withdrew from the race, citing insufficient support. Daley withdrew for similar reasons the following day.

Candidates

, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Climate Change and Shadow Minister for Planning and Infrastructure

Withdrew

, Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Roads *

, Shadow Minister for Police

Declined

, Interim leader, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services

Aftermath

Foley was elected unopposed and declared his candidacy for Labor pre-selection in the district of Auburn, then occupied by incumbent MLA Barbara Perry. Perry announced her intention to withdraw her pre-selection candidacy to make way for Foley.

References