Euphoria, tears and hints of relief have been painted across the faces of NSW Labor diehards as leader Chris Minns led the party out of the wilderness into the halls of power.

Decimated in 2011 after corruption and internal infighting and shocked in 2019, Labor turned to an ambitious young leader who once called for fewer MPs to come from the trade union movement.

After squeezing through a crushing crowd with wife Anna and their three sons, Mr Minns took the stage as premier-elect.

He notably first thanked party volunteers and the trade union movement, before crediting departing premier Dominic Perrottet and his wife Helen for their passion and commitment to civil discourse.

“While I can’t promise every future political campaign won’t be positive, from now on, no one will be able to say it can’t be,” the 43-year-old said.

Rather than kick out a government, voters had chosen to ditch an “unfair” wages cap, and for teachers, nurses and other public servants, he said.

“It was also a decisive vote against privatisation,” Mr Minns said to exuberant applause.

Labor had to represent those who were not in a trade union, the Kogarah MP said in his inaugural speech.

As the results of Saturday’s election became clear, MPs who have only known opposition lined up to effuse praise upon “a great leader.”

Tears welled in the eyes of Rockdale MP and accountant Steve Kamper as he celebrated an overwhelming and great victory of his friend and neighbouring MP.

“The way he (Minns) has conducted himself throughout the whole campaign, actually from the time he was leader, people could see (he was) the man they want leading the state,” Mr Kamper said from Labor HQ on Saturday night.

Jihad Dib, returned to parliament on a 23 per cent margin, said there was one evident element of the Minns leadership style.

“He had a new style of politics, he wasn’t into playing games, he wasn’t negative. A fresh start, he said let’s put some policies out,” he said.

The Labor leader joined elite company in the state party by winning from opposition. 

Only Neville Wran (1976) and Bob Car (1995) had done so since World War II.

“He can be as significant a premier as Wran and Car,” federal Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen told reporters.

Earlier, cautious optimism gave way to pure glee as early votes showed an increasing number of Labor gains, including double-digit swings in suburban Parramatta and Camden.

“We smashed it 70-30 two party preferred on our booth. I killed them,” one party member said.

“I thought maybe they’ll need someone like me to wrangle the crossbench,” said another party official. “But no!”

Others, scarred from Bill Shorten’s unexpected loss in the 2019 federal election, played down a final Newspoll result showing a 6.5 per cent swing.

But by the end of the night, the swing was even larger at 7.0 per cent.

“We won, finally,” a Labor supporter said.