Today, after 13 years as the Member for Hornsby, I announce my retirement from the NSW Parliament.
During these incredible years, I have been lucky enough to proudly serve as a local member, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs as well as Treasury, Committee Chair, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, Energy and Environment, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, and Treasurer of NSW.
First and foremost, I have been grateful to serve the people of Hornsby and make lasting and positive impacts on the electorate. I’m proud to have successfully advocated for the rebuild of Hornsby Hospital, the construction and delivery of the Northconnex motorway and starting the remediation of Hornsby Quarry for public open space.
As a Minister of the Crown, I am grateful I was able to deliver the largest expansion of NSW national parks in a generation, and deliver reforms ranging from electric vehicles to hydrogen.
As Treasurer I fought hard to build a return to surplus after the economic damage of the pandemic, while also maintaining the important triple-A credit rating. Through this, I focused the 2022 budget on delivering the biggest generational investment in women’s economic opportunity this state has seen.
I am also proud of the agenda-setting reforms I drove relating to energy and climate change. The NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap remains the largest renewable energy policy in Australia’s history, and the State’s 2030 and 2035 emissions reduction targets are ambitious, science-aligned and achievable. In 2019, I doubt anyone would have thought either possible. It was because the work we did on energy and climate change was genuinely multi-partisan and done in the spirit of consensus building.
Tackling science-aligned action on climate change is going to be the hardest policy challenge for a long time to come. My advice to those who remain in NSW Parliament is to double down – the best and only way to keep energy prices low and the lights on is to build new infrastructure quickly.
None of these achievements would have been possible without an incredible support network. I want to thank my family, my partner, my colleagues and staff, the people of Hornsby who backed me to fight for them, and my mentors, especially Premier Gladys Berejiklian who showed me the importance of service, hard work, dedication and commitment to the people of NSW. I particularly want to thank the Liberal Party whose broad church is there to serve all Australians.
I am leaving parliament but will always look to serve the public and I intend to continue making the biggest contribution I can to the community and the causes I am passionate about. This will be in a different career. I will continue to be a proud member of the Liberal Party, however I do not intend to nominate for a federal seat. Instead I will pursue a corporate career in the energy sector to continue playing a role driving this important transition.
