A day after announcing he would be stepping aside from the NSW Labor leadership, Michael Daley has backflipped on his vow to recontest the leadership following the federal election.
On Tuesday, the former NSW opposition leader announced he would not be putting himself forward in the upcoming leadership ballot and that he had made the decision after consulting colleagues and family.
"I have always put the interests of the party first and in making this decision, continue to do so," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I intend to remain the Member for Maroubra. I have spoken to the Interim Leader, Penny Sharpe and have advised her that I will be taking leave over the next few weeks to spend time with my family.
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On Monday, shortly after the Coalition secured a majority government in NSW, Mr Daley announced he would be stepping down as leader until a leadership vote could take place following the federal election.
“This is the right and proper thing to do. It is in keeping with the spirit of the state Labor Party’s caucus rules requiring a rank and file election of the leader," he said, claiming he did not want to be a distraction.
Deputy NSW Labor leader Penny Sharpe has taken the role of interim leader.
"This is unprecedented, we accept this, it is unchartered waters," Ms Sharpe said on Monday, suggesting a new, full-time leader would be in place by the end of June.
"We'll see how we go, but I am actually quite confident and calm about how we will deal with this."
Mr Daley has been under fire since a video was released ahead of the NSW election, showing him claiming that young people were being forced to flee the city because "Asian migrants with PhDs" were taking jobs.
The former opposition leader apologised for the comments, which were made during a Politics in the Pub function in September last year, but many believe the comments contributed significantly to Labor's loss on Saturday.
Labor frontbencher Jodi McKay said on Saturday that the comments "really hurt us".
"I won't say that they were racist comments. They were very, very poorly worded comments and he apologised for that. Do I wish he said those? No. Do I agree with what he said? No. But I do think that it did not help our case for forming government," she said.
According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, Ms McKay is one of the key frontrunners to replace Mr Daley, alongside the former president of NSW Young Labor Chris Minns.
