Requested final Wednesday if he was assured in representing the seat of Fortress Hill subsequent yr, Elliott replied: “I’m only a suburban dad attempting to proper a couple of wrongs.”
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet mentioned Elliott had his assist because the candidate for Fortress Hill regardless of his personal hard-right faction enjoying a job in Elliott’s determination to depart politics.
Perrottet mentioned the retirement of Elliott and eight different senior MPs forward of the March election was a “pure a part of politics” and renewal throughout election cycles.
“I spoke to David late final evening who suggested me of his determination,” Perrottet mentioned. “I inspired him to remain.
“I feel it will be important that new blood comes by way of. I feel it’s good for renewal.”
Requested if the resignation of 9 senior MPs was an indication of rats leaving a sinking ship and whether or not he deliberate a Cupboard reshuffle, he mentioned: “I’ll take into account these issues sooner or later.”
Previous to holding the Transport and Veterans portfolios, Elliott additionally served because the NSW Police, Counterterrorism and Emergency Providers Minister.
He thanked the state’s 200,000 police and corrections officers, firefighters and different emergency companies personnel in his assertion. The minister additionally thanked his employees, who he mentioned “deserve the Victoria Cross”.
Elliott was first elected to parliament in 2011 and joins a rising checklist of senior MPs and ministers quitting state politics forward of subsequent yr’s election. Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes, Buyer Service Minister Victor Dominello, and Corrections Minister Geoff Lee are additionally quitting.
Former attorney-general Gabrielle Upton and Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly may also bid farewell to Macquarie Road.
Identified for his crash-or-crash-through type of politics, Elliott gained notoriety in 2018 after utilizing parliamentary privilege to allege then Labor chief Luke Foley had harassed a journalist at a CBD bar.
He additionally sparred together with his personal authorities MPs, earlier this yr attacking Treasurer Matt Kean for his intervention within the extended rail industrial dispute.
Elliott has this yr been on the centre of the federal government’s industrial dispute with rail unions. Whereas creating a powerful rapport with union representatives by way of the early months of the long-running dispute, the connection has since deteriorated.
Elliott in September mentioned the union had “shat on me from an awesome peak”.
