Dominic Perrottet is determined to wrestle the political focus back to his government's re-election in the wake of twin party scandals, announcing greater powers for NSW pharmacists to dispense treatment for women.
Revisiting his pet project to plug the state's GP shortages, the premier has announced the rollout of a $5 million trial allowing pharmacists to renew prescriptions for the contraceptive pill and prescribe medications for urinary tract infections.
"We want to ease pressure on the GP network and emergency departments ... pharmacists will be able to prescribe medications ... to make a real difference to families and women right across NSW in modernising our health system," Mr Perrottet told reporters on Sunday.
The trial, to start on April 1 if the government is returned to office, would mean consultation fees for women aged between 18 and 65 with UTI issues and 18-35 for the contraceptive pill will be covered by the government for a year.
Mr Perrottet launched the policy as he distanced himself from the turmoil which has engulfed the coalition.
After last week appearing to downplay the conduct of senior MP Peter Poulos, who, it was revealed, had released explicit pictures of colleague Robyn Preston, Mr Perrottet said the party and parliament need to uphold high standards in stamping out sexism.
"Ultimately we've got to have high standards in the parliament," he told reporters.
"We need to have the best practices in place and people would expect politicians particularly to lead the way in setting standards".
The party's state director suspended Mr Poulos for six months, excluding him from the Liberals' upper-house ticket for the March poll.
"While Mr Poulos has apologised for his actions to the person concerned and to the community, his conduct fell short of the standard of behaviour expected of members of our party," a statement said.
The explicit images, from a 1980s Penthouse shoot, were shared in the context of a preselection battle at the time.
Asked again on Sunday if the Liberal Party was in disarray weeks out from the state election, Mr Perrottet said "all organisations have their challenges" adding that he's focused on leading the government to another four-year term.
"The organisation needs to deal with matters that affect the organisation," he said.
He reiterated his call for greater women's participation in the party saying "the more diverse parliaments are, the better the decision-making".
On Friday, the government was caught up in a second scandal when Damien Tudehope resigned as finance minister after declaring he owned shares in toll road owner Transurban.
The company operates most of Sydney's toll roads and the city's tolling regime is one of several key election flashpoints.
The premier accepted Mr Tudehope's resignation despite saying he had been cleared of wrongdoing by lawyers from the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Meanwhile, residents in west suburban heartland seats overwhelmingly view stagnating wages for essential workers and rising electricity bills as by-products of misguided government policies, research shows.
A Unions NSW-commissioned poll released on Sunday found almost 73 per cent of residents in Penrith, 76.5 per cent in Parramatta and 75.6 in East Hills said pegging pay to less than half the inflation rate left them a lot or somewhat concerned for the quality of public services.
Labor on Sunday unveiled plans for a $1 billion publicly-owned corporation that would help "keep the lights on" as the state makes the shift to renewable energy, in a general response to government's $1.5 billion Clean Energy Superpower Fund.
