Twelve seats hang in the balance in the NSW election as the count resumes to determine the margin of Labor’s victory.
Premier-elect Chris Minns is tipped to lead a majority government with at least 47 seats as the Liberal Party looks for a new leader after Dominic Perrottet stepped down following Saturday’s election loss.
Mr Minns and his Labor team will be sworn in by Governor Margaret Beazley this week.
He said the first agenda on his list was to do “a tonne of reading” of briefs from the outgoing coalition government about the state of the budget.
“And then our immediate priority is to turn around results in emergency departments,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB on Monday.
“I know it’s going to be a rocky road. The challenges are immense.”
Mr Minns continued singing the praises of his predecessor, saying he would seek Mr Perrottet’s counsel about the top job despite their political differences.
“He might have views about the way parliament works … it would be crazy not to take his expertise and experience on board.”
ABC election analyst Antony Green said counting would resume in the pre-polling centres where votes were not tallied when polls closed on Saturday.
“That will probably firm up the position in all the doubtful seats,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
Labor is ahead in the seats Kiama, Miranda, Ryde and Terrigal, while the Liberals are ahead in several seats that also hang in the balance, including Drummoyne, Goulburn, Holsworthy and Oatley.
“There’s still a chance Labor could win some of those,” Mr Green said.
Independents are threatening the blue-ribbon Liberal seats of Willoughby and Pittwater, but it’s likely the major-party candidates will prevail after absentee votes are counted.
There was a strong chance the Liberal-held seat of Wollondilly could fall to independent Judy Hannan, Mr Green said.
The Nationals seats of Tweed and Upper Hunter remain in doubt but are likely to firm up for the party on Monday.
The election featured a swing of about six per cent to Labor, which was dwarfed by the 16 per cent swing against the party when it lost government in 2011.
“It’s taken Labor three elections to recover from the drubbing in 2011,” Mr Green said.
Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Stuart Ayres and the Liberal Party are holding out hope of hanging onto Penrith on Sydney’s western fringe.
The Penrith MP and former deputy Liberal leader is watching to see if he can claw back a 3.1 per cent swing to Labor.
Mr Ayres was trailing Labor’s Karen McKeown by 1451 votes, or 2.5 per cent, when counting stopped on Saturday.
“There’s still a lot of pre-poll and postals to be counted in Camden and Penrith,” a NSW Liberal Party spokesman told AAP.
Large swings were recorded in Mr Perrottet’s seat of Epping (8.5 per cent) and outgoing treasurer Matt Kean’s Hornsby (9.2 per cent).
The obvious heir-apparent to the Liberal leadership, Mr Kean ruled himself out of the contest on Sunday, saying he was instead choosing to “hang out and be a dad” to his three-year-old son, Tommy, while serving his Hornsby electorate.
“I have a young family and I would love to spend a little more time with them,” he said.
Other potential candidates include former attorney-general Mark Speakman, outgoing enterprise, investment and trade minister Alister Henskens and former planning minister Anthony Roberts.
By Luke Costin and Phoebe Loomes in Sydney
