Mark Speakman Elected as NSW Liberal Party Leader: Almost a Month After Losing Government

Key Highlights :

1. The NSW Liberal party room has elected a barrister and moderate to lead the party.

2. Mark Speakman won a party room vote in when Liberal MPs met on Friday.

3. He had earlier declared he would run for NSW opposition leader on Friday morning, as a number of MPs threw their support behind the Cambridge-educated MP from Cronulla.

4. Watch the latest news on Channel 7 or stream for free on “I’m running on a united team with Damien Tudehope and Natalie Ward.”

5. Speakman’s main competition came from former minister and right factionist Anthony Roberts, who signalled earlier this month he intended to run.

6. Alister Henskens, another ex-minister who tested his leadership chances after the March 25 election loss, would not confirm before the meeting if he would run.

7. MP Mark Coure told AAP he would back Speakman.

8. “I think he’ll do a wonderful job for the Liberal Party.”

9. Another former minister, James Griffin, said Speakman was the best man to hold the new Labor government to account.

10. Former deputy leader and moderate Matt Kean arrived at parliament with MP Chris Rath and both declined to say who they would support.

11. The party room is also voting to replace Kean, who resigned in the wake of the Coalition’s election defeat.

12. MPs were still voting on other leadership positions as the party room meeting continued.

13. Conservative western Sydney MP Tanya Davies was tipped for the deputy role after running on a platform of recapturing suburban Sydney seats lost to Labor.

14. The Badgerys Creek MP made headlines last year when she caught COVID-19 after speaking at a rally against vaccine mandates outside the state parliament.

15. A challenge from North Shore MP Felicity Wilson had been expected to complicate Davies’ chances.

16. Newly elected Liberal MP Kellie Sloane’s name was also floated as a possible deputy but she did not contest at Friday’s meeting.

17. Ward, the former women’s minister, is favourite to become the leader of the upper house, replacing ex-finance minister Tudehope.

18. Premier Chris Minns said he had a shared responsibility to work with the new opposition leader to guide policy decisions and improve the state.

19. “All I care about is making NSW as good as it can be ... so I take the position seriously, it’s a very difficult job,” Minns told reporters on Thursday.

     It has been almost a month since the NSW Liberal Party lost the state election, but they have finally elected a new leader. The Liberal Party room voted in barrister and moderate Mark Speakman on Friday, who had declared his intentions to run for the position earlier in the morning.

     Speakman, a Cambridge-educated MP from Cronulla, ran on a united team with Damien Tudehope and Natalie Ward. He was up against former minister and right factionist Anthony Roberts, who had signalled his intention to run earlier this month. Alister Henskens, another ex-minister, had tested his leadership chances after the March 25 election loss, but would not confirm his candidacy before the meeting.

     Mark Coure, a current MP, declared his support for Speakman. “I think he’ll do a wonderful job for the Liberal Party,” he said. James Griffin, another former minister, said Speakman was the best man to hold the new Labor government to account.

     The party room also voted to replace former deputy leader and moderate Matt Kean, who resigned in the wake of the Coalition’s election defeat. Kean said, “The dust has had time to settle and there’s a lot of hard work ahead. What we need is a strong, stable and sensible leader to hold Labor to account.”

     Conservative western Sydney MP Tanya Davies was tipped for the deputy role after running on a platform of recapturing suburban Sydney seats lost to Labor. Felicity Wilson, North Shore MP, had been expected to challenge Davies, but did not. Kellie Sloane, a newly elected Liberal MP, had also been floated as a possible deputy.

     Ward, the former women’s minister, is favourite to become the leader of the upper house, taking over from Tudehope. Premier Chris Minns said he had a shared responsibility to work with the new opposition leader to guide policy decisions and improve the state.

    The NSW Nationals, the junior Coalition partner, re-elected leader Paul Toole and deputy Bronnie Taylor during their own party room meeting earlier this month. It is clear that the Liberals have elected a strong leader in Mark Speakman, who will be a formidable opponent for the current Labor government. Only time will tell how successful he will be in his new role.

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