Category Archives: New South Wales politics

NSW prosecutors launch proceedings against Labor officials accused of disguising donations to Chris Minns

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Labor MP Ernest Wong and restaurateur Jonathan Yee are facing court over allegedly circumventing election funding laws

New South Wales prosecutors have launched proceedings against two state Labor officials after they allegedly disguised donations to Chris Minns during his election campaign almost a decade ago.

On Tuesday, the NSW Electoral Commission revealed the director of public prosecution had begun proceedings against former Labor MP Ernest Wong and restaurateur Jonathan Yee. The commission commenced an investigation in 2019 into a “potential scheme to circumvent” election funding laws during the campaign to elect Minns for the seat of Kogarah.

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NSW motorists who use medicinal cannabis may soon be able to drive without fear of major penalty

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Premier Chris Minns says changes would balance road safety and a more practical approach for medicinal cannabis users

Motorists who use medicinal cannabis may soon be able to drive on New South Wales roads without fear of a severe penalty as the Minns government announces long-awaited reforms.

The government announced on Thursday it would introduce legislation which would see drivers with a medicinal cannabis prescription no longer face a three-month licence suspension or fine for having the THC component of cannabis in their system.

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Anti-abortion activists are trying to limit access in NSW – and they are just getting started

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Obstetricians and gynaecologists say anti sex-selective abortions bill ‘predicated on misinformation’ and ‘underlying aim is to restrict access to abortion’

The man who wants to ban “sex-selective abortions” is the first person who will tell you it won’t work.

New South Wales Libertarian party MLC John Ruddick has introduced legislation that would see health practitioners sent to prison or fined thousands if they carry out a termination because of the sex of a foetus.

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Budget to include extra $2bn for infrastructure – as it happened

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Wilson promises Coalition will be ‘very clear’ on migration

Wilson is asked about comments made by the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, after the byelection that hinted at a rightward shift toward “ending mass migration” and stopping net zero policies.

I can assure you in the coming weeks we’re going to make it very clear what we’re for. Australians need to know that we’re in favour of families, community, small business and self-starters.

My focus on migration is how we make sure we get new Australians integrated successfully.

One of the reasons Australians have become very nervous about migration is they feel that people are coming to Australia and getting the benefits without making the contribution. And I want the best, boldest, most confident new Australians we can have.

There would be some nervous Labor MPs because what people want to see is change.

One of the most consistent messages is that people want someone who is going to fight for them and their future.

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Water flows to parched NSW wetlands could be turned back on within weeks as drought fears loom

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Water minister Rose Jackson calls drying in Gwydir region ‘devastating’ as bill passes upper house

Water flows to parched New South Wales wetlands where an urgent rescue mission to save dying wildlife unfolded are a step closer to resuming after legislation passed the state parliament’s upper house.

The water minister, Rose Jackson, told the parliament on Thursday night the impact of a halt to environmental flows in the internationally significant Gwydir region had been “devastating” as she introduced legislative amendments she said would allow flows to resume.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

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NSW promises more fast chargers and electric trucks in revamped EV policy

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Premier Chris Minns says policy will give road users a ‘real alternative’ that’s cheaper than petrol

Electric truck development and building more stations to charge them will be core pillars of a state’s revamped electric vehicle strategy designed to ease the pressure of rising fuel costs.

The New South Wales government unveiled its 2026 EV strategy on Tuesday in an effort to give confidence to motorists hesitant about switching from their increasingly pricey petrol cars.

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NSW to crack down on property underquoting, forcing sellers to publish price guides on all listings

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Underquoting and ‘dummy bidding’ will attract fines of $110,000 in bid to create a ‘fair property market’

The New South Wales government will introduce new laws this week to force property sellers to publish a price guide on all advertising, and impose a fivefold increase to fines for underquoting real estate agents.

The government says the draft laws, first flagged last year, are aimed at cracking down on agents providing misleading price estimates on property listings, a practice often used to inflate interest.

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NSW’s top prosecutor scores legal win in bias claim against senior judge

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Recusal application against district court judge Penelope Wass yet to be determined amid row with DPP

New South Wales’ top prosecutor has been given the green light to continue her fight to get a senior judge removed from a historical sexual offences trial on the grounds of apprehended bias.

The ruling from the NSW supreme court is the latest development in a long-running row between the director of public prosecutions, Sally Dowling SC, and district court judge Penelope Wass. The dispute went before the NSW court of appeal last week.

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NSW government denies ‘covering up’ deadly fungal outbreak at major hospital

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Health minister says cluster of infections at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital was not publicised to avoid ‘unnecessarily scaring people’

The New South Wales health minister has denied “covering up” a deadly fungal outbreak at one of Australia’s largest hospitals, saying it was not publicised to avoid “unnecessarily scaring people”.

The cluster of infections caused by aspergillus, a common mould, killed two patients and left four others unwell in the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) hospital’s transplant unit in late 2025.

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More than 670 NSW pokies venues to be stripped of ability to stay open after 4am

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Exclusive: Government to end exemptions to mandated closing times for pubs and clubs, including those that allow 24/7 gambling

More than 670 poker machine venues across New South Wales will lose their “outdated exemptions” to operate after 4am as the state government responds to pressure to address “a public health catastrophe”.

The decision, announced by the state’s gaming minister David Harris, will ensure gaming rooms are closed at the mandated 4am deadline. Some venues are allowing them to be played 24/7.

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Kellie Sloane appointed NSW Liberal leader following ouster of Mark Speakman

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The former journalist and first-term MP had Speakman’s endorsement and support across the factions

Kellie Sloane has become the third woman to lead the NSW Liberal Party after a party room meeting agreed on Friday morning to make her leader of the opposition.

The right’s Alister Henskens, the shadow attorney-general, did not stand.

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Kellie Sloane is tipped to replace Mark Speakman as NSW Liberal leader. That should make life tougher for Chris Minns

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Sloane, an ex-journalist, is good at delivering lines. But if the state Coalition tears itself apart over net zero, she could be left talking up a fractured opposition

Compared with their federal colleagues, the New South Wales Coalition has been a relatively collegial conservative political grouping. But no more.

Over the next fortnight, the NSW Liberals could well dump their leader, Mark Speakman, and face the almost impossible task of reconciling divergent positions on net zero emissions with junior coalition partner the Nationals. There is a real prospect that the state opposition could fracture.

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Strap in for a feral lead-up into Christmas in the NSW parliament

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The Minns government has two major pieces of legislation it desperately wants to pass – but to do so it needs to woo some crossbenchers

As the New South Wales parliament draws to a close at the end of November, expect it to be dominated by feral horses, feral pigs and feral politics.

The Minns Labor government has two major pieces of legislation it desperately wants to pass before parliament rises. But it faces obstacles in the upper house where a clutch of minor parties hold the balance of power.

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Name of suspect in Cheryl Grimmer cold case revealed in parliament by NSW MP

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Girl’s family had told the man, known by pseudonym ‘Mercury’, to meet with them by Wednesday midnight or they would make his identity public

A New South Wales MP has used parliamentary privilege to reveal the identity of a man who was previously charged by police over the alleged abduction and murder of a UK-born toddler, Cheryl Grimmer, 55 years ago.

Cheryl vanished from outside a shower block while with her mother and three older brothers at Fairy Meadow beach in the Illawarra region of NSW on 12 January 1970.

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NSW government rejected expert advice before failed koala reintroduction that left more than half dead

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Exclusive: Documents reveal state environment department had ‘reckless indifference’ to fate of individual koalas, Greens spokesperson Sue Higginson says

The New South Wales government rejected advice from an expert scientific panel before it attempted a failed reintroduction of koalas to a forest in the state’s south that resulted in the death of more than half the animals.

Internal documents show most members of a panel advising the state environment department on plans to relocate endangered koalas as part of a conservation strategy recommended against moving marsupials from forest near Wollongong to the South East Forest national park near Bega, a five-hour drive away.

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‘We want our stories to be told’: NSW Labor pledges $3.2m to support writing and literature amid AI onslaught

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Stories Matter strategy responds to urgent pressures such as declining reading rates and growing impact of digital media on publishing, minister says

It is a sector that delivers $1.3bn annually to the New South Wales economy and supports up to 22,000 jobs, yet the average writer earns just $18,200 a year from their creative practice.

To counter this stark disparity, the NSW government is launching the state’s first ever writing and literature strategy, and has committed $3.2m to support and expand the sector.

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From protest laws to deaths in custody, Minns’ rush to claim the conservative high ground is clumsy and costly

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At almost every opportunity, the NSW premier chooses a conservative path: get the cops on side and let nobody fault Labor’s toughness on crime. It’s not working

There is a lesson for Chris Minns in the NSW supreme court’s declaration that police powers to deal with protesters near places of worship are invalid: laws curtailing civil liberties should never be rushed.

They should certainly not be pushed through in an atmosphere of panic and incomplete facts such as existed in the fevered days after the now notorious Dural caravan incident.

Anne Davies is Guardian Australia’s NSW state correspondent

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NSW urged to stop strip-searches of young people after court ruling spotlights police conduct

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Supreme court rules police suspicion that a person is in possession of a prohibited drug ‘is not sufficient to conduct a strip-search’

Advocates are calling on the New South Wales government to scrap strip-searches of young people altogether, saying a landmark court ruling found “systemic” issues with the way police have been using their powers.

Justice Dina Yehia handed down her findings in the NSW supreme court on Tuesday in a class action brought by Slater and Gordon Lawyers and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW.

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Ausgrid slashes safety inspectors after report finds cheaper to pay permanent disability injury compensation

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Secret report from CutlerMerz finds yearly cost of inspections – $520,219 – is more than cost of paying compensation – $28,375 a year

Ausgrid cut safety inspector numbers by more than half after receiving a secret report that said it was cheaper for the company to pay compensation for a permanent disability injury than to continue paying for the inspections.

The secret report, conducted by consultancy CutlerMerz and seen by Guardian Australia, recommended Ausgrid slash the inspections it was doing by as much as 55%, saying the cost – $520,219 per year – was “grossly disproportionate to the cost of the consequence being managed”.

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The question for the NSW Liberals after the Kiama drubbing is: can anyone do better than Mark Speakman?

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Kellie Sloane has ruled out moving a spill and James Griffin isn’t eager. Alister Henskens is thought to lack the numbers. So, for now, the leader might be safe

Byelections are usually a referendum on the government. But Saturday’s Kiama byelection – and the poor performance of the New South Wales Liberals – has deepened angst within the opposition party regarding Mark Speakman’s leadership.

In Kiama, Labor increased its primary vote – a feat in itself in a byelection – and looks set to achieve an impressive swing on a two-party-preferred basis. Labor’s Katelin McInerney is on track for a thumping 60% to 40% 2PP victory over the Liberal candidate Serena Copley.

Anne Davies is Guardian Australia’s NSW state correspondent

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