NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay’s leadership rival, Chris Minns, quits shadow ministry

Jodi McKay’s leadership rival, Chris Minns, has quit shadow ministry — the second resignation in two days.

NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay (left) and Shadow Minister for Transport and Chris Minns.

NSW Labor’s Transport spokesman Chris Minns, who previously lost a leadership contest to embattled leader Jodi McKay in 2019, has quit her frontbench amid jostling to shore up support for a challenge to her job.

Tumult within the party accelerated rapidly on Tuesday when a dirt file targeting Mr Minns was circulated widely to journalists, allegedly by a staff member working within the ALP’s leadership team.

On Wednesday morning, Mr Minns said his position had become untenable. “I’m obviously disappointed by news reports that a dirt dossier was distributed by the deputy leader of the Labor party’s office,’’ he said.

“In the last 24 hours, I have not received any communication or explanation from the Leader, or the deputy leader as to how or why this was done.

“As a result my position in the Shadow Cabinet is untenable and I will resign effective immediately. The public wants a contest of ideas and a vision to improve the lives of working families, not negative politics.”

pic.twitter.com/s23kL2pu6u

— Chris Minns (@MinnsChris) May 25, 2021

Ms McKay is facing a spill motion as early as Wednesday, with colleagues ­actively jostling to shore up support for a challenge to her leadership and persuade undecided MPs to act following the disastrous Upper Hunter by-election result.

Mr Minns was leading efforts to upend her position on Tuesday night, though others were known to be positioning themselves to stand should a spill motion take place.

Defiant McKay dig in

Ms McKay said her party needs to move on and continue holding the NSW Premier to account.

Appearing on Sky News on Wednesday, Ms McKay brushed off the dirt dossier released about Mr Minns on Tuesday evening and turned the spotlight on to Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

“This isn’t about me. I would have never had guessed this would all unfold the way it has after a byelection loss we were never supposed to win,” Ms McKay said.

“I think we just need to get back on to holding Gladys Berejiklian to account.”

Ms McKay repeated comments made during a press conference on Tuesday when she repeatedly said, “I was democratically elected. If I don’t have support, I won’t be there”.

“Gladys turned a blind eye to corruption. In a Covid environment she’s allowed to get away with it.”

“She can have whatever partner she wants but she can’t not report what she knew to ICAC and she can’t give out money that benefits her boyfriend”

Ms McKay said she was “really disappointed” Mr Minns has quit the shadow cabinet who she said was capable.

“Obviously Chris leaving is a blow but I respect his decision and he is a decent person,” she said. “Despite this tussle for leadership that is happening right now, he is very capable.”

Ms McKay said the dossier was put into circulation by a staff member within the deputy leader’s office. “Last night the staff member involved was sacked.”

Ms McKay said a reshuffle would take place over the next two days.

At a press conference on Tuesday, she said she had not been asked to resign nor had she been challenged for the role since the by-election loss.

“No one in those 48 hours challenged me. No one in those 48 hours asked me to step aside. No one at all made any comment that would in any way be construed as them not having confidence in me,” she said.

Ms McKay did once again concede that structural challenges within the party, and a failure to generate cut-through with voters on key messaging platforms, had left her team vulnerable and less relevant during the pandemic.

“Have we struggled to get our messages out there? Yes,” she said. “Am I perhaps not as popular as Gladys Berejiklian? Yes. But for me, popularity is not what is important – it’s actually about getting out of bed every day and making sure that I do the right thing.”

Within hours of declaring her stability as party leader, Ms McKay’s Treasury spokesman, Walt Secord, announced his resignation from the shadow ministry, citing an inability to work any further with her or senior colleagues.

He singled out the treatment of Mr Minns as a central reason why he was resigning, and accused the office of deputy Labor leader Yasmin Catley of disseminating its content.

Titled Why Chris Minns and Jamie Clements Can Never Run the NSW Labor Party, the document includes a slew of allegations ventilated at an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry that examined political donations to the NSW Labor Party.

Ms Catley and Ms McKay have denied any knowledge or connection to the document.

Mr Minns did not return calls.

“I can no longer serve in a Jodi McKay-led shadow ministry,” Mr Secord said in a statement. “The actions of a staff member of the deputy Labor leader distributing a file on a colleague was completely unacceptable. In short, it was ­absolutely disgusting.”

Officials confirmed a staff mem­­ber allegedly involved in the matter had been put on indefinite leave.

Ms McKay said a replacement for Mr Secord would be announced in due course.

He is the second senior member of the shadow cabinet to resign in recent weeks following Penny Sharpe, the deputy leader in the upper house who resigned after abstaining from a vote on the NSW government’s mandatory disease testing bill, a technical breach of party rules.

Ms McKay said she remained confident no one within the party had garnered sufficient support to unseat her leadership, but some Labor MPs who previously voted for her as leader in 2019 said they were considering their positions.

Of 60 MPs in the Labor caucus, 29 voted for Ms McKay in 2019. Mr Minns won 21 votes at the time.

Potential replacements include former Labor leader Michael Daley and health spokesman Ryan Park. Others understood to have been canvassed include Campbelltown MP Greg Warren.