Joe Hildebrand: Election result is a profound lesson for both parties

Chris Minns is not the first decent person to win an election nor Dominic Perrottet the first decent man to be premier. But it is the first time I can think of that two candidates ran a thoroughly decent campaign, writes Joe Hildebrand.

The NSW election result is nothing short of a landmark moment in Australian politics. Finally we have real-world proof that nice guys can finish first.

And the most extraordinary thing is that this would have been true no matter who won the day.

Chris Minns is not the first decent person to win an election nor Dominic Perrottet the first decent man to be premier.

But it is the first time I can think of that two thoroughly decent people ran a thoroughly decent campaign and gave the most thoroughly decent victory and concession speeches I have ever heard.

This is something that ought to be not just celebrated but bottled. As Minns himself said, it doesn’t prove that decency in politics always will be done but it proves that it can be done.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns takes to the stage with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after winning the election. Picture: David Swift

There are profound lessons here for both the Coalition and Labor and both sides need to absorb them while they are still so resonant.

The first is that this was no deliberate political strategy embarked upon by the party machines after focus groups found that voters wanted more positivity in their political leaders.

The truth is voters always overwhelmingly say that they want politics to be more positive but the research always shows that negative campaigning and attack ads resonate more.

This result, for Labor at least, turns that eternal axiom on its head.

In fact, the tenor of the campaign was set entirely by the two leaders themselves, who genuinely had — and have — a true respect and affection for each other.

Even if all the research in the world had shown that one could have finished the other off with a well-timed gut punch, you can bet London to a brick that each man would have flat-out refused.

Chris Minns, and former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet at the start of The NSW People’s Forum. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

I know this personally 100 per cent but the proof is also out there for all to see.

Because with both the Liberal brand trashed and the NSW Labor brand still tarnished from their last years in office, both parties made this an incredibly presidential-style campaign. It was entirely Minns vs Perrottet.

And yet still this highly personal contest never got personal. Neither man attacked the other, only ever the party and policies of the other. And more often it was less attacking at all but rather a contest of ideas — that lofty phrase often spoken but rarely implemented.

It was, again as both men themselves said on the night, a race to the top, not to the bottom.

This is enough to warm the cockles of even the most hardened political warrior.

And it worked not just for Labor but for both sides. While sadly only one man can be Premier, Perrottet’s legacy will be judged one of the greatest in NSW history.

His establishment of free universal preschool, titanic transport infrastructure and diverting drug users into treatment instead of prison will have transformative effects on the people of this state for generations to come.

Dominic Perrottet pictured on stage with his wife at the Liberal Election Party after conceding defeat. Picture: Damian Shaw

Much — perhaps all — of this would have been undermined had he run a negative campaign. The fact that he didn’t means that Liberal leaders of the future will be able to point to these achievements as proof that the party can be a substantial force for positive reform — and this will be vital to restoring the so-called “toxic” Liberal brand.

And were this in any doubt for those on the right, just look at the results for One Nation. Both Labor and the Coalition expected both a thumping turnout for Mark Latham’s far-right wunderkind that would kill the Libs in key western Sydney seats because the so-called “low-intelligence voters” would follow Latham’s edict to only vote 1.

In fact One Nation’s voters proved both fewer and higher intelligence than Latham presumed them to be. Their vote was highly disappointing and far more of them preferenced than expected.

And so despite Latham’s insistence that the NSW election was a referendum on Matt Kean, the politics of hate simply failed to materialise. The culture-war obsessions of the right-wing rump — ably assisted by the woke left — seem to have little resonance in suburban families who just want to live their lives and get by.

For Labor, Minns’ unwavering decency has already delivered once unimaginable material and moral dividends.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns is seen at his local cafe in Kogarah Sydney after winning the State Election. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Still scarred by the 2019 federal election result, many of the party’s hardest heads were predicting at best minority government and at worst another shock loss, even in the face of public and private polling that pointed to victory.

Perhaps tellingly, Minns and his inner circle were always confident — although never cocky. As we were walking off for an interview after a campaign stop in Oatley, Minns stopped to say hi and and introduce himself to a local shopkeeper.

“It might come down to one vote!” he grinned.

And there it was incarnate: The positivity and the humility all rolled into one ridiculously handsome package.

That package landed on Saturday night like it was Christmas and Labor would do well to mark it as a religious holiday.

For too long the left of politics has defined itself by who they hate and what they are against.

But this new era of NSW Labor has finally turned its gaze back on who it loves and what it is for: The decent and hardworking people of mainstream Australia.