A SOLID swing to Labor has brought 12 years of Coalition government to an end, and Christopher John Minns, 43, is the new premier-elect.
Extrapolations of the votes counted on Saturday night indicate that Labor will be able to govern in its own right in the Legislative Assembly.
The Legislative Council, with its table-cloth ballot paper of minor party and ungrouped candidates, always takes longer to finalise, but a 7.4 per cent swing to Labor - and a 5.6 per cent swing against the Liberal and National parties ticket - will help the ALP improve its position in the upper house.
The Newcastle Herald congratulates the winners, and thanks those whose efforts fell short on the day. As Labor and the Coalition adjust to their changing fortunes, two obvious questions present themselves.
The first is what a Labor government will mean for the state as a whole.
The second is how Labor will regard the Hunter, which so strongly reconfirmed its reputation as a Labor stronghold that the Liberal Party's gains in 2011 are now a distant memory.
This election, as the major parties themselves acknowledged, was fought largely in the suburban sprawl of Western Sydney, where Labor took back at least six seats that had fallen to the Liberals a decade ago.
There is nothing unexpected about the capital city focus.
We are practised, here in the Hunter, at complaining about the amount of attention that Sydney attracts from state and federal politicians alike.
But its sheer size effectively guarantees its precedence in the eyes of decision-makers.
On top of that, its population growth is outstripping the Hunter's - a discrepancy that pits us against an increasingly influential opponent when it comes to a fair share of any government's attention.
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Post-ICAC, it appears the Liberals have little faith in their ability to re-establish their brand in the Hunter.
A majority government will rob Lake Macquarie Independent Greg Piper of any balance-of-power role, and if Dave Layzell holds Upper Hunter for the Nationals, he will be doing so from opposition.
The responsibility, then, will fall on the region's Labor MPs to ensure the Hunter is not taken for granted in Macquarie Street.
With Labor in power federally, and dominant in local government, there will be no better time for the ALP to remember the contribution of its heartlands.
ISSUE: 39,865
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