NSW election: Chris Minns and team prepare to take keys to premier’s office

Incoming premier Chris Minns and his interim ministry will be sworn into government on Tuesday, as Labor gears up to take office.

NSW Premier-elect Chris Minns took to the airwaves in Sydney on Monday, less than 48 after leading Labor to victory. Picture: NCA Newswire / Monique Harmer

Incoming NSW premier Chris Minns and his interim ministry will be sworn into government on Tuesday, as Labor gears up to take office.

Despite pre-polls and postal votes instilling an uncertainty in the prospect of Labor being able to form a majority, treasurer-elect Daniel Mookhey announced the party’s senior leadership team would be sworn in, enabling it to ­receive briefings from departments.

It is understood that the ­remainder of Mr Minns’ cabinet will be sworn in next week.

Mr Mookhey said the partial swearing-in at Government House would bring an end to the caretaker convention, as he flagged the party’s caucus would convene this week, the first meeting of the partyroom since claiming victory on Saturday night.

The priorities for the Labor government would be the status of the flood-ravaged Northern ­Rivers region and getting across the mass fish kill in the town of Menindee, in the state’s west.

Amid early pressure from ­unions to start wage negotiations immediately, Mr Mookhey said Labor was looking forward to beginning those conversations “as soon as we can”.

“I very much welcome the comments from Unions NSW and other unions, as well who also made the point that they’re looking forward to sitting down with a government that isn’t negative towards them, that isn’t starting with prejudice against them,” he said.

With attorney-general-elect Michael Daley the only Labor MP to have served as a minister, Mr Mookhey conceded he needed some help finding the Treasury.

“It’s fair to say I had to Google where the Treasury is. And so I now know where the treasuries headquartered, and I look forward to meeting them,” he said.

But he would not be drawn on the fate of department secretaries, including Department of Premier and Cabinet head Michael Coutts-Trotter, saying Labor respected the “impartiality of the public service” but declined to commit to their long-term future.

Mr Mookhey will be the first Australian minister sworn in on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu ­religious text.

With votes continuing to be counted, Liberal MPs in several seats – including Miranda, Goulburn and Terrigal – overtook their Labor rivals on Monday, while the party’s headquarters claimed the seat of Willoughby, with conservative Tim James defeating independent Larissa Penn.

As the strong pre-poll and postal vote for the Coalition raised the spectre of Labor failing to reach the 47 seats needed to form a ­majority, Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr and Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper declared they had agreed to provide confidence and supply, if necessary.