Independents got more votes than the National Party on March 25

Mr Fay said Climate 200’s impact could be seen in the former government’s decision to ramp up an emissions reductions target to 70 per cent by 2030, as well as its decision to implement an offshore gas exploration and drilling ban. He also claimed it was Climate 200’s advocacy that “pushed” both parties to commit to gambling reform.

Former Treasurer Matt Kean forcefully disputed the claims on Wednesday.

“Our equality policies were outlined in the budget and pokies reform came straight from Dom [Perrottet],” Mr Kean said. “And our emissions reduction target was announced way before the election campaign on the horizon and was based on policies that had already been legislated years before. Any suggestion otherwise is a desperate attempt to rewrite history.”

Mr Fay said Climate 200 had set its sights on growing its foothold in NSW and in federal politics, and that it would broaden its campaign agenda to take aim at spending caps and optional preferential voting in NSW. The optional preferential system is believed to have dampened Climate 200-backed candidates’ chances by starving them of preferences, which helped some federal candidates, including Kylea Tink, get across the line with just 25 per cent of the primary vote.

Mr Fay said the group’s performance in the NSW election – and in Victoria where the candidates it backed failed to secure a seat at the November state election – had laid the foundations to win more seats in years to come. He said independents did better in seats where a candidate had run before, and it usually took two campaigns for an electorate to flip.

“It often takes a couple of independent campaigns in an electorate to build to a win.”

He pointed to Warringah where James Mathison ran before Zali Steggall secured the seat in 2019, and then in Mackellar where Alice Thompson ran before Sophie Scamps won in 2022. In Kooyong, former Clean Energy Finance Corporation boss Oliver Yates ran as an independent in 2019 before Monique Ryan secured it in 2022. In NSW, Wollondilly MP Judith Hannan had run before as a Liberal and for local government.

Larger swing claim

Data compiled by Climate 200 revealed that almost twice as many people voted for independents in the March 25 NSW election compared with 2019, and it claimed that more people voted for independents than the National Party during the election. The group also claims that independents across the state sustained a larger swing towards them than NSW Labor.

In Pittwater, environmental lawyer Ms Scruby netted a swing of 21.4 per cent away from the Liberals, while in Manly marketing executive Joeline Hackman secured a swing of almost 10 per cent from former Liberal environment minister James Griffin. In Lane Cove, teal candidate Victoria Davidson secured a swing of 8.7 per cent from former planning minister Anthony Roberts, while in North Shore former Caltex executive Helen Conway secured a swing of 5.3 per cent from the Liberals.

Across the state, Labor netted a swing of 5.6 per cent towards the party on a two party-preferred basis.

“All of these seats are now marginal, which will set them up for next time and ensure the views of voters there won’t be taken for granted any more,” Mr Fay said. “The NSW result shows the community independents movement is on the rise.”

Mr Fay spoke to AFR Weekend as the newly minted Minns government swore in a ministry of 22 MPs, including Penny Sharpe as Energy and Climate Change minister, the first woman in NSW to hold the position.

Former Australian Consumer and Competition Commission chairman Allan Fels earlier addressed media alongside new Roads Minister John Graham, as the former ACCC boss starts work on a review of the state’s toll network to make it “simpler and fairer”.

Labor pledged toll relief for drivers as a core election plank, promising to cap tolls at $60 a week for all drivers. But motorists will have to wait until next year for the cap to kick in.

Equality credentials

Mr Fels said the toll review would also focus on administration fees around tolling, including the processing fees that are slapped on tolls for drivers who use toll roads without an e-tag. He also ruled out overriding or tearing up any existing toll road contracts.

But in a sign that the review of the state’s toll roads may fly in the face of the new government’s anti-privatisation agenda, Mr Fels indicated there could be an opportunity to boost competition in the sector when toll road contracts come up for renewal by opening up bidding to other parties.

“I think the obvious things are when concessions expire, whether you can open up the bidding for the extensions of those roads to be put up for more competitive bidding, when there are new roads, road extensions and so on,” he said.

Mr Minns has used his ministry to demonstrate Labor’s equality credentials, spruiking the cabinet’s equal numbers of men and women, so long as the premier was not included in the count. With the premier included, women make up 48 per cent of Labor’s cabinet roster.

National Party MPs met for a party room meeting on Wednesday that descended into an impromptu spill as Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders announced his candidacy for the leadership against incumbent party leader and former deputy premier Paul Toole. Under party conventions, all leadership positions are declared vacant after every election.

Mr Toole prevailed in the party room vote, securing eight votes to Mr Saunders’ seven, while incumbent deputy Bronnie Taylor was returned as the party’s 2IC. Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh was returned as the party’s whip.

Meanwhile, the Liberals could remain without a leader until well after the Easter break. Former premier Dominic Perrottet resigned from the leadership on election night and paved the way for a new leadership contest, but uncertainty over a slew of federal positions expected to become vacant in the coming months have slowed the search for a new leader.

Former trade minister Alister Henskens, former attorney-general Mark Speakman and former planning minister Anthony Roberts are regarded as contenders in a potential leadership race, even as Mr Speakman is regarded as a potential replacement for Scott Morrison in the federal seat of Cook.

Mr Morrison is yet to reveal his plans for federal seat that overlays lawyer Mr Speakman’s state electorate of Cronulla.