Chris Minns

Christopher John Minns (born 17 September 1979) is an Australian politician serving as the 47th and current premier of New South Wales since March 2023. He has been the leader of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2021 and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the district of Kogarah since 2015. He was previously the deputy mayor of Hurstville from 2007 to 2008.

Minns was first elected at the 2015 New South Wales state election, and was elected unopposed as leader of the Labor Party in the leadership election of June 2021, following the resignation of Jodi McKay. He led the party to victory at the 2023 state election.

Early and personal life
Minns was raised in the St George region of Sydney in the suburb of Penshurst. He studied at Marist College Kogarah. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of New England in Armidale and attended Princeton University in the United States where he was awarded a Masters in Public Policy (2012–13).

Minns is married and has three sons with his wife Anna. Upon his return from Princeton, while his wife pursued her own business opportunities Minns became the carer of his sons before nominating for parliament.

Minns has previously worked in the charity sector for a youth mental health charity, as a firefighter, as an advisor in the NSW government and as the assistant secretary of the NSW Labor Party.

He joined the Australian Labor Party in 1998 when he was 18 years old and was elected as the member for Kogarah in 2015.

Minns is a supporter of NRL club the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Minns' father, John, died on the 1 May 2024 after suffering a heart attack. In Minns' inaugural speech, he spoke about his love for his father, and thanked him for bringing Minns into the "Labor tribe".

Political career
Minns was first elected to office in 2004 as a Penshurst Ward councillor of the Hurstville City Council, and was elected for a term as deputy mayor in 2007–2008; he left council at the 2008 election after serving a single term. He also worked on the staff of Carl Scully and John Robertson.

Premier
In March 2016 a reshuffle of the shadow ministry following the resignation of Linda Burney resulted in Minns being appointed Shadow Minister for Water, replacing Mick Veitch.

Following Luke Foley's resignation as NSW Labor leader and leader of the NSW opposition, Minns nominated for the roles. On 10 November 2018 Minns lost the leadership spill to Michael Daley, 33 votes to 12. After the 2019 state election Minns lost the leadership election to Jodi McKay on a combined caucus and party membership vote of 60.5% to 39.5%. He was appointed to the portfolios of transport and corrections in the shadow cabinet.

2021 leadership challenge
Following Labor's defeat at the Upper Hunter by-election in May 2021 and a possible leadership challenge to McKay, a file titled Why Chris Minns and Jamie Clements can never run the NSW Labor Party was circulated from the office of deputy Labor leader Yasmin Catley. Minns was disappointed with the lack of explanation or communication from McKay and Catley over the file circulation, and resigned from shadow cabinet on 26 May. He was the second MP to resign from shadow cabinet in two days after shadow treasurer Walt Secord, a close supporter of Minns. On 31 May 2021, after McKay resigned as party leader, Minns announced he would run for party leadership. If Michael Daley and Minns had contested for party leadership, it would have been Minns’ third leadership contest and his second one versus Daley. Minns’ leadership bid was publicly supported by more than a dozen senior Labor MPs including Penny Sharpe, Ryan Park, Jihad Dib, and Prue Car. On 4 June 2021, Michael Daley pulled out of the leadership contest, allowing Minns to be elected to the position of leader unopposed.

Opposition Leader
In the 2023 NSW election campaign, Minns made election promises to invest further into public services. He had been criticised for being reluctant to promise reform on money laundering in gambling, however on 16 January Minns released a plan to reform gambling, which would ban donations from clubs (gambling organisations) to political parties and promises a cashless gaming card trial, which would last for 12 months and cover 500 of the approximately 86,480 (0.58%) pokies machines (slots).

2023 election
Minns led the Labor Party to victory at the 2023 New South Wales state election on 25 March, defeating the incumbent Liberal–National Coalition, returning Labor to power at the state level for the first time since 2011. Despite winning the election, Labor did not win enough seats to govern in majority, but were able to form government with the support of three independents Alex Greenwich, Greg Piper and Joe McGirr.

Premiership
The Health Services Union accused the Minns government of being too slow to remove the 3 per cent limit on pay rises.

Political views
Minns is a member of Labor Right, and was assistant secretary of the NSW Labor Party. He has been described as a centrist.

In 2003 Chris Minns attended the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) inaugural Rambam trip to Israel, at the time adviser to NSW Minister for Roads and Housing Carl Scully. Attending alongside Minns were former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Bill Shorten and the Federal Opposition leader Simon Crean's foreign policy adviser Carl Ungerer.

In his inaugural speech in the Legislative Assembly, Minns criticised the state government's sale of NSW's electricity assets and called for mandatory Mandarin Chinese lessons in New South Wales schools. In 2019, Minns argued in favour for the legalisation of cannabis during a party meeting but has since walked back this position since becoming premier. Minns opposed legislation that would enable voluntary euthanasia.

Views on union influence in the Labor Party
Additionally, Minns called for a reduction in union influence in the Labor Party in favour of "increasing representation of ordinary members of our party who have more diverse voices", stating that while trade unions were integral to the success and heritage of the Labor Party, the party also needs to represent those who are not in a trade union, and that will mean taking steps to reduce union control on Labor's conference floor.

Bob Nanva, national secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, while acknowledging that Minns had been "an extraordinarily effective Assistant General Secretary of the ALP", rebuked him for being "seriously mistaken" on his views about unions. Additionally, both Mark Buttigieg and NSW Labor Party secretary Jamie Clements disagreed with Minns' contention regarding unions. By 2019, Minns reportedly no longer held those views, according to HSU NSW state secretary Gerard Hayes.