BARRISTER and former Newcastle Herald journalist Stephen Ryan has been endorsed unopposed by the ALP to challenge the high-profile Independent MP Greg Piper at the March 25 state election.
Mr Ryan, 41, said on Friday that he was honoured to represent the Labor Party, and was determined to do everything he could between now and the election to convince the voters of Lake Macquarie that it was time for a change.
"None of us are under any illusion as to the task involved in taking the net gain of nine seats that Labor needs to form government," Mr Ryan said yesterday.
"But the sense I'm getting is that there will be a change in government, and that people like what they see in Chris Minns as opposition leader.
"I'm aware of the size of the challenge involved in standing against Greg Piper, but he has been there since 2007.
"My message to voters is that a Labor member in Lake Macquarie will give the electorate a direct say in government."
Mr Piper, 65, began in politics as an Independent on Lake Macquarie City Council in 1991, rising to deputy mayor before being directly elected as mayor in 2004 and again in 2008.
He was elected to state parliament in 2007, and remained on the council, holding dual MP and mayoral roles, until 2012.
Lake Macquarie had been safe Labor territory before Mr Piper's election, with Merv Hunter holding the seat from 1969 to 1991.
His son, Jeff Hunter, held the seat until the 2007 election, which was won by Piper on a narrow margin of just over 100 votes after preferences.
In 2011 and 2015, Mr Piper won on preferences after polling about 42 per cent of the primary vote.
Mr Piper won outright in 2019 with 53.5 per cent of the first preference vote.
Mr Ryan said he was born at Taree and grew up at Wingham, starting a journalism cadetship at the Manning River Times at the end of his HSC year in 1999.
After stints with the Daily Liberal in Dubbo and on suburban papers in Sydney, he moved to Lake Macquarie to join the Herald in 2008. He and wife Katie live at Teralba.
Studying law while at the Herald, he took redundancy in 2015 and was admitted as a barrister in August 2016.
He continues to write for the NSW Bar Association journal Bar News, and has represented Australia in triathalons. He wrote this opinion piece on the sport last year.
He joined the ALP in 2019.
"Most of my cases are in criminal law, in the appeal and Supreme courts as well as the local and district courts," Mr Ryan said.
"Working in the legal system, and as a journalist, I have seen first-hand the difficulties that many people face in their lives, and it's a desire to help improve things that has led me to stand for the Labor Party."
Mr Ryan said he would be campaigning almost full-time until election day.
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