New South Wales premier-elect Barry O'Farrell is basking in the Coalition's huge majority after last night's historic election win and has promised to fix the state's problems with a proven ministerial team.
Mr O'Farrell is expected to lead a Liberal-National coalition of up to 68 members in the Lower House while Labor is likely to have 22 seats.
The leader-in-waiting said today he expects to take his shadow ministry into government unchanged.
Mr O'Farrell was quick to rule out increasing the team, despite 30 new MPs being elected in yesterday's landslide Coalition victory.
"I'm not increasing the size of the cabinet," Mr O'Farrell said during a media conference at Parramatta this morning.
The biggest swing away from Labor was about 36 per cent in Bathurst and the party lost seats in its traditional strongholds of the Hunter Valley, Illawarra and Western Sydney.
The defeat looks set to tip state Labor into the abyss of a political dark age, with dozens of MPs losing their seats.
Mr O'Farrell called the win "historic and unprecedented".
"We've won seats that we've never ever dreamed that we'd win," he said.
"We've reshaped the political landscape of the city, of the state, and it just adds to the understanding by my colleagues of the sacred trust that we've been given to make this state number one; to try and fix the problems we inherit and to make people's lives better.
"We live in a very diverse society... whatever your job, whatever your income, whatever your heritage, whatever your lifestyle, we're a party that seeks to embrace those who believe in the things we believe in.
"We'll implement the policies, we'll take the fight up to Canberra on carbon tax and we'll do that for as long as the people of this state will have us."
No rest
He says the first order of business will be to build Sydney's north-west rail link.
"One of the first things I will be doing is picking up the phone to the Federal Government about that," he said.
"The bottom line is, I don't think anyone believes this state is performing up to scratch in a whole range of areas."
When outgoing premier Kristina Keneally came to make her concession speech last night there were none of the trademark smiles that characterised her 15 months as premier.
WIth a grim face, she conceded that Labor had made mistakes and that had cost it office.
"The truth is, the people of New South Wales who entrusted us with government for 16 years did not leave us, we left them," she said.
"The reality is, that our lack of unity and discipline as a party and in some individual members put the very future of the New South Wales Labor Party at risk."
Ms Keneally announced she is stepping down as leader but will remain in Parliament after having won her working-class seat of Heffron.
Targeting population boom
Mr O'Farrell says the state's population is set to reach nine million in 25 years and he will fix the population pressures on Sydney by growing regional New South Wales.
"Instead of Sydney, which is currently home to two thirds of this state's population becoming home to three quarters, we are going to engage in whole of state growth," he said.
"We are going to engage in a regional development act to decentralisation, to ease Sydney's growth pains and offer to people in this state ... the services that they have in the cities."
He has ruled out increasing his team, despite 30 new MPs being elected into his party, and expects to take his shadow ministry over to the front bench.
"We do have within a parliamentary system a range of committees that have been allowed to rot and be ignored under this current government," he said.
"I actually think that committee work is important. I sat on the ICAC committee for 10 years and there are lots of things that members of the Parliament can be doing.
"There are lots of ways to use Parliamentary committees better for the public good and we'll be seeking to do that."
Mr O'Farrell says his government will remain unified and has issued a strong warning to dissident members.
"I'll expect every member of this new team to adhere to the standards that we've applied to ourselves, because we can't afford to replicate in any way what's gone on over the past 16 years under Labor," he said.
"It's our way or the highway I suppose, because we have been singularly successful in ensuring that we've been focused, we've been united, we've been disciplined."
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