SMH - Tom Rabe
Mr Perrottet on Monday unveiled his new frontbench, doubling the number of ministers overseeing the transport cluster, which he conceded had been beset by several “challenges” in recent months.
“What worked in 2010 doesn’t necessarily work in 2020,” Mr Perrottet said, when outlining the reasons behind the overhaul.
“I want to make sure that we have ministerial responsibility in those key areas … by having individual ministers accountable for those areas, I think which produce better outcomes for our state.”
Former police minister David Elliott becomes Transport Minister, though roads have been stripped out of that portfolio, with Natalie Ward taking on the job ahead of a 2023 state election in which Sydney’s tolling regime is set to become a key issue.
Mr Elliott will inherit transport as the government scrambles to return the cracked inner west light rail to service, endures ongoing problems with its overseas-built ferries, and is in an ongoing dispute with the rail union over pay and working conditions.
With industrial action occurring on Monday night and Tuesday morning, Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary, Alex Claassens, warned that more action would take place on Sydney’s train network in the new year if an agreement could not be reached with the government.
“Unless the NSW government delivers the basic protections we’re asking for, we’ll have to look at further action. We can’t rule anything out at this stage,” he said.
“We could sometimes get lost because there’s big dollars at play. We can get lost in the big road projects, the big transport projects, and lose sight of smaller projects that can make a real difference to communities,” he said.
Mr Stokes told the Herald last month that making changes to the city’s cycleways and footpaths could make an immediate impact to Sydney’s livability.
RELATED ARTICLE
Mr Stokes also becomes the state’s Infrastructure Minister, who will oversee the multibillion-dollar pipeline and chair a new committee which will replace the Delivery and Performance Committee.
Four of the nine new ministers added to the 26-strong cabinet are women, with Mr Perrottet on Monday reiterating his party needed to do more to bring women into Parliament.
“This is a ministry that is picked on merit and ... obviously when it comes to having more women represented in the Liberal Party in the Parliament, we need to do better,” he said.
He rejected assertions the new ministers were politically inexperienced, saying most of them had been in Parliament for several years and had either chaired committees or worked as parliamentary secretaries.
RELATED ARTICLE
Opposition Leader, Chris Minns, questioned who would be leading the state’s transport cluster.
“We’ve got a transport department in utter disarray - the last thing we need is buck passing between ministers,” he said.