Gurmesh Singh elected NSW Nationals leader, says he is open to nuclear energy
Loading
Asked to differentiate himself from his predecessor at his first press conference as leader, Singh called Saunders a “great media artist” and added that he liked “more the policy side of things”.
Singh, a blueberry and macadamia farmer-turned-conservative politician, was believed to be the only lawmaker to call his colleagues on leadership, according to lawmakers who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail private discussions.
Singh benefits from MPs willing to unite behind a new leader, while Paul Toole, 2.5 years after being ousted as leader, has decided not to run despite intense speculation he will run.
The MP position vacated by Singh was still seen as a lively treat with just an hour left until the party room meeting. Veteran frontbenchers Anderson and Sarah Mitchell were praised by MPs, but it was Anderson who emerged with the role. Mitchell will continue as leader of the party in the upper house.
Elected in 2019, Singh held a number of shadow portfolios, including emergency services, regional affairs and the North Coast.
Saunders unexpectedly resigned, saying in a statement on Monday that he “wanted to focus more on my family and myself.”
“I have had the privilege of leading the NSW Nationals for the past 2.5 years – I am stepping down from that position today,” he wrote.
National sources believed Saunders had lost the support of his colleagues and would have faced a challenge this week had he not backed down.
A Sikh of Punjabi descent (his great-grandfather Bella Singh emigrated in the 1890s), Singh grew up in Woolgoolga on the state’s Mid-North Coast. But in an interview Nighty In September, the MP said he was “tired of being called Indian”.
Loading
“How many more generations does it take before I stop being Indo-Australian and just being Australian? I think that’s the question we all have to answer,” he said.
While the Nationals and Liberals held a joint party room meeting at 10am on Tuesday, MPs who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail confidential discussions said the Liberal group had signed up to a net-zero target by 2050.
“The emphasis has been on affordability and reducing impacts on regional communities,” a Liberal MP said, adding that no one had spoken out in favor of abandoning that commitment.
Following a briefing by federal senators Matt Canavan and Ross Cadell last Monday, the NSW National Party chamber agreed “in principle” to support the federal National Party’s “cheaper, better and fairer plan”.
But YouGov’s poll, conducted on behalf of the Coalition-linked Planning Institute, found there are serious electoral risks in Liberal-held seats.
Our Breaking News Alert will I will let you know It’s important breaking news when it happens. Get it here.
