Who is Kellie Sloane, the new NSW Liberal leader – and can this first-term former journalist save the party? | New South Wales politics

After months of speculation about her leadership ambitions and the protracted death of Mark Speakman, Kellie Sloane’s message after being elected unopposed to the New South Wales Liberal party was succinct.

“What a day!” He said on Friday morning before thanking colleagues and saying he was “ready to work for NSW”. He then walked down the corridor towards the opposition leader’s office.

It was the kind of media management you’d expect from a former journalist. The night before, when Speakman resigned and endorsed Sloane, a staff member visited journalists in parliament with a simple, three-line statement from the member for Vaucluse, thanking Speakman for his leadership and support.

On Thursday evening, Speakman acknowledged the party’s survival was under threat and said Sloane, 52, a “great communicator”, would “clear the air”.

“He is someone with tremendous, tremendous leadership potential.”

The former television journalist, who was elected unopposed on Friday morning, is known for performing well and the government took notice.

The Sydney Morning Herald analyzed Prime Minister Chris Minns’ parliamentary speeches since March 2023 and concluded: “Member of Vaucluse” was among the most common phrases he said more often than “public transportation.” Minns took aim 44 times in 18 different speeches: predicting future wars in the shipping box and on the campaign trail.

Now that Sloane is leader, Minns has a clear line of attack: his relative inexperience in politics.

Speakman himself, in his latest push to meet the challenge on Thursday, openly referred to her as a formidable “first-term” MP.

But in a job where superior communication skills are career-defining, Sloane’s resume speaks to her potential.

It was the South Australian transplant’s on-air talent that brought him to NSW. He grew up and attended a state school in the Barossa Valley, studied art at the University of South Australia and began his career as an ABC student in Adelaide. In 1997 he started working as a reporter at Nine in Sydney.

He worked there for 13 years, including a stint as host of the Today show, before moving to the late-night news show Nightline in 2009. He left Nine in 2010 after the show was cancelled.

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After leaving journalism, Sloane worked as a chief executive for non-profit education organizations before running for the Liberal preselection in Willoughby following the resignation in 2021 of Gladys Berejiklian, the Coalition’s first female Liberal prime minister and second female leader.

Despite backing former Willoughby mayor Gail Giles-Gidney, Berejiklian has attracted the attention of high-profile Liberals including former premier Mike Baird and former federal treasurer Joe Hockey.

In a surprise result, moderates Giles-Gidney and Sloane came second and third behind former Tony Abbott staffer Tim James, who was elected in the 2022 by-election.

James is a member of the party’s right wing and is aligned with a rival leadership bid this week by shadow attorney-general Alister Henskens.

But Sloane’s high-profile endorsements point to his Liberal connections. Her husband, Adam Connolly, a former News Corp journalist, was an advisor to John Howard.

He now runs Apollo Communications, a corporate communications company that offers “direct connections to journalists and influencers.”

The company is not listed on either the NSW or federal lobbyist registers, but Sloane may need to clarify potential conflicts of interest to avoid the lobbying scandals that have dogged many NSW politicians.

Sloane is running for preselection in the eastern suburbs seat of Vaucluse in 2022, with the backing of more Liberal heavyweights such as federal senator and former Wentworth MP Dave Sharma and local powerbroker Sally Betts. He won.

He won the seat by a comfortable margin in 2023, moved straight into the opposition frontline as shadow environment secretary, and then moved to health when Matt Kean resigned in mid-2024.

As the Opposition’s health spokesman, he walked the line between holding the government to account and acknowledging the Coalition’s role in setting up the disastrous private-public partnership at the Northern Beaches hospital, which took place long before he was elected.

In parliament he was tough on the government’s response to the rise in illicit tobacco, introducing legislation later mirrored by Labour’s own legislation. During questioning, Sloane often keeps an eye on the press gallery, observing how journalists are reacting to the controversy.

In resigning on Thursday, Speakman said he had dragged the Liberal party “kicking and screaming into an aggressively pro-housing policy” and called on his successor to maintain that commitment.

Sloane, whose electorate includes areas affected by the government’s decision to build a railway station and up to 10,000 homes in Woollahra, said he did not want residents to be “punished” with more housing in 2022.

But he treated the government’s redevelopment of the area cautiously, saying he was not opposed to development “in principle”, casting doubt on the government’s figures.

Sloane’s qualities as an opposition leader were made clear after this month’s neo-Nazi rally. Taking to social media to condemn the incident, Sloane received a number of hateful messages from X, including death threats, and reported them to the police.

At the press conference held by Speakman, the person to whom journalists asked questions was not the former opposition leader, but the shadow health minister.

“I will have no difficulty speaking out what I think and will stand up on behalf of my community and the wider Sydney community who do not like hate,” he said, echoing comments that appeared countless times in the media that day.

At a press conference on Friday morning, the mother of three teenage boys said families and young people “will be at the heart of everything”. [the Liberals] He said this meant action on the cost of living and energy prices, but it was too early to detail what this would look like at a policy level.

He said he was “pro-housing,” including among his own voters, and echoed Speakman’s repeated calls for new subway lines.

Standing next to deputy leader Natalie Ward, Sloane said she hoped the “female-female leadership team” would inspire more women to enter politics. He said he didn’t think the party needed a gender quota “right now” but was open to discussions.

Although Sloane acknowledged that dysfunction in Canberra was hurting the NSW party, he rejected the idea that women were being put on a “glass cliff” of appointments during the crisis, saying “I wasn’t forced, I put my hand up”. He said he believed in Sussan Ley as federal opposition leader but said the NSW Liberals remained committed to net zero.

Like new Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson, he will need to insulate the state Coalition from the federal frenzy and struggles engulfing Ley. Cracks are now appearing in the Gurmesh Singh-led NSW Nationals over net-zero emissions, which could be disastrous for the Liberal-held metropolitan seats.

According to the latest Resolve poll, the Coalition has a significant 28% vote share. If this situation is not improved, it will lead to a massive Labor majority at the March 2027 election.

Asked who he most fears facing in 2027, this week’s prime minister did not mention the member for Vaucluse but said he has a “healthy fear of them all”.

“The Liberal party is a terrific party,” Minns said. “They’ve won more than they’ve lost over the last 20 years. Almost every election in NSW has been close except 2011.

“This is going to be close, too, and the last thing I want voters to think about is that we’re counting our chickens.”