Despite all its bluster, under the Minns Labor Government public school enrolments have fallen. #education #nswpol

🚨BREAKING NEWS 🚨 The Minns Labor Government has backed down on crazy plans to slow down Shire train services by up to 14 minutes. Thanks everyone who signed my petition! The fight continues for faster, more reliable services.

Chris Minns and Labor have failed on Shire trains. Their new timetable gives Cronulla line commuters a raw deal - slower services, and only a handful of extra ones to cope with Labor's plans for tens of thousands of new local residents - and plans to regularly close carriages. Their own case study of “Olivia” from Cronulla has services up to 11 minutes slower.

Friends are such a rare commodity in politics. The Hon Bruce Baird AM (1942-2026) was one of mine. His sudden death is a shock to many - he was active, sharp and “switched on” and an apparently fit regular swimmer until his death. His career was a distinguished one, including as an Australian trade commissioner, NSW minister for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, NSW transport and tourism minister, NSW deputy Liberal leader, from 1998 to 2007 the local federal member for Cook, and post-politics a tourism industry leader. But far more important than career achievements as Bruce the diplomat, Bruce the politician or Bruce the post-politics eminence grise was Bruce the person.  He was a strong Christian who exuded grace, kindness, inclusion and goodwill, not pharisaic judgment of others. He was highly principled, even at a political cost to himself. He was lighthearted, in a vocation where many take themselves far too seriously.  I valued his wise and calm counsel and mentorship in the face of the ups and downs of political life and life more generally. Devoted to his angelic late wife Judy through her debilitating long and final illness, he was the patriarch of an extraordinarily talented and inspirational family, whose members I admire greatly.  Vale Bruce.

⚖️ Congratulations to 20 new silks announced today by the @NSWBar #auslaw #nswlaw

⚖️Vale Hon W M C (“Bill”) Gummow AC, 1942-2026 - judge, scholar, practitioner - former @HighCourtofAus justice and one of the most distinguished jurists whom Australia has ever produced. A prolific writer, his co-authored Meagher Gummow and Lehane Equity: Doctrines and Remedies has been possibly the most influential and cited Australian legal textbook in the common law world outside Australia. I vividly recall his intellectual property lectures at @SydneyLawSchool, where, with his encyclopaedic knowledge and incisive analysis, he would regularly and clearly recount without notes the facts and principles of leading cases.

Community preschool teachers tell me that the Minns Labor Government’s “Universal Preschool Funding” program announced in June will actually cut their pay, reduce staffing levels and threaten the viability of over 700 community preschools in NSW. #StartStrongPayFair

⚖️ Vale Hon Mary Gaudron KC 1943-2026, distinguished and trailblazing jurist - the first and only female High Court of Australia justice in the 20th century and the first female solicitor-general in any Australian jurisdiction.

The OECD’s 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results for NSW 15 year olds are alarming. ❌Reading scores have fallen since 2022 with results at the lowest levels recorded since testing started in 2000. ❌Mathematics scores have also fallen to the lowest on record. ❌Only 50% of NSW students are meeting the national proficiency standard in mathematics and 56% in reading. ❌NSW is being outperformed by Victoria, the closest comparable state. The Minns Labor Government must snap out of its complacency and urgently fix its approach across the board, including: ✅ensuring evidence-based, explicit teaching methods for reading and mathematics, which have been shown to produce the best results, are actually being used in all classrooms ✅initial and ongoing training of teaching reading and mathematics ✅giving teachers the training and support they need for effective classroom behaviour management ✅ensuring technology is not being counter-productive in classrooms ✅support for children with disability.

Live with @ClintMaynard2GB and @SimonKennedyMP at @NorthiesHotel Cronulla, for @2GB873 ’s 100th birthday. “I’m going to remind Chris Minns and Anthony Albanese every day that they want to see tens of thousands, tens of thousands more people live in the Shire. But there hasn’t been an extra classroom, an extra hospital bed, an extra train service, an extra intersection, an extra park in three and a half years of Chris Minns. So we’ve got to have that infrastructure if you’re going to have development.”

“Government recognised the nefarious practice [of money laundering] in casinos but incredulously allow[s] dirty money, coupled with poker machines, to wreak harm on the lives of many in NSW. Reforms cannot come soon enough.” - @smh smh.com.au/national/nsw/open…

“A plea to keep faith in our cultural diversity” - well said Archbishop @KanishkaRaffel and Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton:   “This is not a question of 'either/or' but of 'both/and'. We are, and can be, committed guardians of our distinctive cultural inheritances, whether Indigenous or of more recent vintage, and at the same time subscribe to shared commitments as Australians... ...Australians have the freedom to have serious disagreement about political or moral issues yet still cohere as a society... In this age of social media-induced echo chambers, which isolate us from other voices that can challenge us, refine our thinking and expand our sympathies, an attempt to create a monoculture would only deepen our problems. Yes, a flawed multiculturalism can be damaging, but the better alternative is not to retreat into a monocultural illusion that neglects history and human nature. We can take inspiration from the variety of the Australian bush or the cityscape of our home in Sydney, with its churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. We should invest our efforts in nurturing a form of collaborative multiculturalism that serves Australia and all its people, creating an Australia that is stronger precisely because it is diverse."   theaustralian.com.au/comment…

The 2026 NSW NAPLAN results released today are disturbing. They include: ❌Year 3 students in the lowest numeracy band increasing by over a quarter since NSW Labor came to office. ❌Increases since last year, and in the three years of NSW Labor, in students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in the lowest band for reading and writing. ❌ 30% of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students not meeting national benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy. ❌ NSW outperformed by Victoria, the closest comparable state, on 11 of the 12 averages for reading, writing and numeracy. The Government must snap out of its complacency and urgently review its approach to supporting teachers, including: ✅ initial and ongoing training ✅ ensuring explicit teaching and phonics policies are actually being implemented ✅ ensuring teachers have enough support for classroom behaviour management ✅ ensuring technology is not being counter-productive in classrooms ✅ support for children with disability. – at Sydney, New South Wales

Under NSW Labor, the state’s skills pipeline continues to weaken with falling qualification enrolments. Apprenticeship and traineeship commencements fell from 65,265 in 2022 to 39,630 in 2025, a 39% fall. The number of apprentices and trainees in training fell by 24%. ncver.edu.au/research-and-st…

⚖️Vale Hon Ken Handley AO CStJ KC. NSW Judge of Appeal for 22 years, judge on Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati superior courts, President of @NSWBar and @AustBarAssoc, Chancellor of @SydAnglicans, chair of Cranbrook School, President of St John Ambulance Australia among other positions, long term barrister at Tenth Floor Wentworth Chambers. One of our finest jurists and professional leaders.

The @NSWSmallBizCom’s June Momentum Survey makes for sobering reading: ❌Only 16% of businesses indicated they were confident about their individual business prospects. ❌Only 6% of businesses expected profitability to increase, compared with 63% expecting a decline ❌Only 9% expected revenue to increase, compared with 55% expecting a decline ❌Only 9% of respondents were confident about their local economy ❌25% of businesses were extremely worried about their prospects ❌72% were worried about staff mental health ❌76% were concerned about red tape ❌77% were concerned about electricity price changes ❌79% were worried about cash flow ❌89% were concerned about the cost of business inputs. smallbusiness.nsw.gov.au/sit…

NSW housing remains dismal. Today’s ABS figures show: ❌ NSW May 2026 seasonally adjusted dwelling approvals at 4465, down from 4827 (already too low) in May 2025. ❌ Approvals per head in NSW in the 12 months to May 2026 the lowest of any mainland state. abs.gov.au/statistics/indust…

Poker machine shame. Today’s @smh: “An influential Sydney mayor has launched an extraordinary attack on the Minns government over poker machines, accusing his own party’s MPs of being beholden to an intimidation campaign akin to the kind waged by America’s powerful gun lobby. Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne … said the issue had been ‘swept under the rug’ by Labor ministers and backbenchers for too long and described the scale of losses in pubs and clubs as ‘obscene’.” smh.com.au/national/nsw/labo…

Poker machine tax revenue in NSW was $2.232 billion in 2022-23. The Government’s projection is $3.438 billion in 2029-30. This is a 54% increase. The Government’s Budget relies on money laundering and the misery from gambling addiction getting much worse. #nswpol #gaming #pokermachines