May 29, 2026 — 4:00pmNSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane will aim to win back disaffected voters who have abandoned the Coalition by arguing the state’s massive infrastructure pipeline has stalled under Premier Chris Minns’s Labor government, while vowing to offer an optimistic campaign vision in the lead-up to the NSW election in March.Sloane, the first-term MP who shot to the Liberal Party leadership last November, will use one of her first major speeches on Friday to lay out a plan for a campaign she will say must eschew anger and division.Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane has laid out her vision ahead of the NSW election in March.Ben Symons / SMHIn an address to the Liberal Party’s federal council, Sloane will pitch an optimistic campaign which is “bigger than anger”. The Liberal Party under her leadership is “not here simply to oppose”, and will be “bigger than division”. “We are here to build. To offer hope again,” she will say.While not offering any new policy announcements, Sloane’s speech contrasts not just with the growing threat of One Nation, but also a federal Coalition which has sought to tack a more conservative, populist course to arrest the party’s alarming poll slump.Speaking at the Federal Council meeting at which former Prime Minister Tony Abbott is expected to be named as the party’s next president, Sloane will assert a more classical Liberal approach, sticking to the traditionally moderate-dominated NSW branch of the party’s pitch as better economic managers with a track record of infrastructure delivery.It also lays out how Sloane will seek to convince voters to return to the Coalition, comparing the former government’s ambitious infrastructure agenda with a first-term Labor government which has to this point largely eschewed significant major road or rail projects.She will take aim at Minns for having “no long-term vision beyond his own political cycle”, pointing to his response in March when asked by a reporter about his “dream for how this city looks” when the new Metro West opens 2032. Minns said at th time: “Well, I won’t be here”, which Sloane calls “an admission that he’s already thinking of retirement next term”.“A vision for the future of NSW shouldn’t end at cutting ribbons on the projects built by your predecessors,” she will say.“Previous governments understood something NSW Labor seems to have forgotten: leadership means building for the future not just managing the present.”In three years, the current government has “put the brakes on our economy”, she will say, pointing to the state’s housing approvals, which lag the ambitious national Housing Accord targets despite major reforms to the planning system, and “stalling” major infrastructure projects.At the same time, the government has been “unable to negotiate a decent deal for our state when it comes to GST” and “dudded” on infrastructure funding in the federal budget, saying that if NSW had received its “fair share” of funding on a population basis the government could “build a new Metro Line with a 50-50 funding split with the federal government”.Those claims will be strongly disputed by the government. Labor regularly points out, for example, that many large infrastructure projects commissioned under the Coalition, including the south-west Metro, faced budget blowouts.The Coalition will also come under pressure to answer how it would fund major new infrastructure projects given interest rates and construction costs have increased significantly since its last term in office.The opposition is also yet to outline a wage policy after the removal by Labor of the previous public sector wage cap.Sloane faces a mammoth task in the lead-up to the next state election. The Herald’s Resolve poll in May had the Coalition sitting on a primary vote of 26 per cent, trailing the ALP on 32 per cent and four points ahead of One Nation on 22 per cent.Party insiders fear NSW’s optional preferencing system could lead to an electoral wipeout for the party if One Nation maintains anything close to that result next March, and the government has for weeks heaped pressure on Sloane over whether the Coalition will seek to strike a preference deal with Pauline Hanson.While such a deal could help the party hold onto seats in regional NSW and the outer suburbs of Sydney, it would probably pose issues for MPs – such as Sloane – in the city’s east and north.Despite that, Sloane will strike a defiant tone, pointing out Minns is governing in minority, and that: “if we hold on to our current seats – we just need to flip six seats. That’s all”.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.More:NSW State ParliamentFor subscribersTony AbbottLiberal PartySydneyChris MinnsKellie SloaneFrom our partners