ABC – New South Wales Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian confirms she will stand for the state’s top job, as outgoing Premier Mike Baird says: “I haven’t backed anyone”.
Mike Baird announced his resignation, citing the need to support his family.
A partyroom meeting is planned for Monday and a leadership spill is expected to happen on Tuesday, but it is unlikely there will be a ballot, as the ABC has been told the leadership positions will be decided by the partyroom earlier.
On ABC News, Mr Baird said he had not backed anyone.
“Gladys Berejiklian would be outstanding, no doubt about it,” he said.
“There is an incredible, talented group of ministers, many have huge potential both short-term and long-term.”
In a statement confirming she would run for the top job, Ms Berejiklian said she was “deeply saddened” by Mr Baird’s decision to retire.
“Mike has been an inspiring leader and a man of enormous integrity who has left an outstanding and indelible mark on the state of NSW,” she said.
“Today is Mike’s day — but I would like to make it clear that I will be standing for the leadership.”
It is likely that Dominic Perrottet will be the deputy leader of the NSW Liberal Party.
The ABC understands Transport Minister Andrew Constance is also considering running.
While it was expected that Planning Minister Rob Stokes would also run for the leadership, he has since confirmed he will bow out of the race.
These are the likely frontrunners who may contest the leadership positions:
Treasurer and the Deputy Leader of the NSW Liberal Party, Ms Berejiklian is considered the frontrunner to be the next Premier.
Ms Berejiklian is part of the Liberal Party’s moderate faction and was elected unopposed as Mr Baird’s Liberal deputy in April 2014.
The 46-year-old former Commonwealth Bank executive was elected the Member for Willoughby, on Sydney’s lower north shore, in 2003.
She was appointed transport minister after Barry O’Farrell led the Coalition to a landslide win in 2011, a position she held until Mike Baird appointed her Treasurer after the 2015 election.
She is NSW’s first female Treasurer.
In October 2016, Ms Berejiklian declared the state debt free with a final surplus for the 2015-16 financial year of $4.7 billion.
Labor attributed the debt-free status to the sale of infrastructure assets including the partial sale of Ausgrid, but the Government pointed to investment in other projects such as Sydney’s WestConnex and the light rail.
Ms Berejiklian is the daughter of Armenian migrants and a granddaughter of victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide.