The new state Labor leadership team has snubbed the Mountains, with MP Trish Doyle and MLC Adam Searle not selected to serve as shadow ministers.
For the past two years Doyle was Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence and Shadow Minister for Women, up until a fractious change in leadership saw Jodi McKay step aside and Chris Minns take the leadership role for the Labor Party earlier this month.
Doyle said a new team had been chosen and she wished them well. "Politics is grueling. I am proud to stand by my principles. The past few weeks have been tumultuous. As someone who has always believed that the personal is political, I want to acknowledge how privileged I have been to represent the people of NSW. I'll have more time in the Mountains for our community."
Ms Doyle thanked "all the people I have worked with in these portfolios" and said she would continue to "champion" their concerns as member for Blue Mountains.
Former Mountains mayor and long serving Labor politician Searle has spent a decade as either deputy or leader of the Labor party in the NSW Legislative Council, but announced on June 8 he was "no longer part of the ALP leadership team in State Parliament". Until recently he also held portfolio positions as Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, as well as industrial relations and planning.
"There was a desire for a new leadership group and as part of that change I stepped down as Leader of the Opposition in the upper house." He wished Penny Sharpe and John Graham well and said he was proud of "improving legislation, establishing inquiries, obtaining information the government tried to keep secret, and other accountability measures".
Ms Doyle rocked Parliament in March this year with allegations a Nationals MP raped a female sex worker at Yellow Rock in 2020. The woman approached Ms Doyle in her capacity as Shadow Minister for Women. The politician involved - Michael Johnsen - resigned from parliament later that month.
Ms Doyle said she was proud to negotiate through legislation to include front-line firefighters (the 'boots on the ground'), in the government's advisory committee. This group has oversight of the Black Summer Bushfire Inquiry recommendations. Her work to highlight the stories and lives and voices of victim-survivors in a domestic violence committee contemplating legislation to criminalise coercive controlling behaviours, is shaping critical reform.
A spokesman for Mr Minns said: "Like all newly elected leaders, Mr Minns has made changes to his front bench ... the team he believes the party needs at this time. It is not a reflection on the performance of members who previously served."
