The Sauce: Minns government starts planning at ‘halfway point’ for 2027 election

Labor MPs and Minns government ministers held a special hour-long briefing on Friday as the party begins to ready itself for the March 2027 election.

NSW Premier Chris Minns. Picture: NewsWire/Nikki Short

Labor MPs and Minns government ministers held a special hour-long briefing on Friday as the party begins to ready itself for the March 2027 election.

The Sauce hears the group was addressed by Premier Chris Minns and NSW Labor general secretary Dominic Ofner, with MPs reminded the party was at the “halfway point”.

With Labor holding 45 of the 93 seats in state parliament, just two seats put them in the majority.

Sources said the discussions included the May federal election result, “and what lessons could be learnt”, how NSW Labor MPs could “do better” and what had been done and what there was yet to do.

We would not have been surprised had the Premier pulled out of the commitment because it was the same day his staff – and that of Police Minister Yasmin Catley – were appearing before an upper-house inquiry into the Dural caravan plot and the criminalisation of hate speech.

Among the biggest reveals of the staff grilling were that no notes were taken by the Premier’s department in police briefings about the hoax.

NAGLE’S LEGACY

Peter Nagle was not a perfect man, but he was a passionate one. That was how NSW Auburn MP Lynda Voltz described her predecessor, who died on June 21.

Recruited to the party by Paul Keating when just 15, Nagle had his first meeting “in Paul’s car, which was parked in Bankstown”. “That was Peter – his political journey began not in marble halls but on the street among the people,” she said.

Peter Nagle.

Member for Auburn Lynda Voltz. Picture: NewsWire/ Harmer

The barrister, councillor and TAFE ethics teacher later became an organiser for the musicians’ union, where he supervised international music legends like Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, she said.

“Only Peter could blend politics, law, education and rock’n’roll, while making it look effortless,” Voltz said.

In 1988, he became the member for Auburn.

“He loved people and loved a good Chinese meal,” she said. “He championed cases for cement truck drivers, egg carters and beer delivery workers who had lost their contracts unfairly.

He married Karen Davis, whose father had been among affected workers during his fight to get the Industrial Relations (Contracts of Carriage) Amendment Bill 1994 through both houses of parliament, Voltz said.

ON THE LEVEL?

A mysterious level 5 button has appeared at NSW Parliament House.

A mysterious “level 5” button that has suddenly appeared on the Parliament House lift wall has prompted speculation among MPs and ministers about whether it this might be Macquarie St’s secret “severed floor”.

Viewers of the Severance TV series will know the “severed floor” is an isolated floor at the “Lumon Industries HQ” where only bosses and those who have undergone the “severance procedure”, which allowed memories from one’s work life and personal life to be separated, can access.

One MP told The Sauce: “I have actually been on that level and can reveal that it contains a generator and not much else.

“Maybe something is coming?”

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Originally published as The Sauce: Minns government starts planning at ‘halfway point’ for 2027 election