Former NSW health minister Jillian Skinner has officially tendered her formal resignation, almost a month since she announced she would quit politics.
Ms Skinner, 72, who was dumped from cabinet in Premier Gladys Berejiklian's January reshuffle, handed in the resignation on Monday evening, Speaker Shelley Hancock's office confirmed to AAP on Tuesday.
The move clears the way for a by-election in Ms Skinner's northern Sydney seat of North Shore.
The veteran MP had come under fire for delaying the resignation, with speculation the move was an apparent tantrum over Ms Berejiklian's decision to dump her from the health portfolio.
Ms Skinner, who went AWOL as parliament resumed for 2017 last week, has continued to pocket wages from her taxpayer-funded $157,000 salary.
There are understood to be four main candidates for North Shore preselection.
They include former premier Barry O'Farrell's chief of staff, Anna McPhee, former president of the NSW Liberal Women's Council, Felicity Wilson, former chief of staff to Planning Minister Anthony Roberts, Tim James, and marketing consultant Jessica Keen.
Ms Skinner has held the northern Sydney seat since 1994 and endured several scandals in her role as health minister - including the chemotherapy underdosing crisis and gassing death of a baby at a western Sydney hospital.
She was replaced by fellow long-time MP Brad Hazzard in the reshuffle.
Two other by-elections are due to be held in the seats of Manly and Gosford, vacated by former premier Mike Baird and cancer-stricken Labor MP Kathy Smith, respectively.
Dates for those by-elections are yet to be confirmed but there are reports they could be held late March or early April.
Share
