NSW Labor leader Chris Minns says "it's time for change" for the state after nearly 12 years of coalition government.
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He used a speech to a NSW Labor conference to galvanise party faithful before the state election in 160 days.
Mr Minns pledged a locally built fleet of trains to replace NSW's ageing rail stock and 10,000 extra teachers.
"We are ready for the challenge, we want the responsibility and we're prepared for the long hours," Mr Minns said on Sunday.
"After 12 years, it's time for change in NSW."
NSW heads to the polls in March next year and if Labor wins, it will be their first state victory since 2007.
More than 800 delegates have attended the conference at the weekend, where they heard the party's war chests were ready for next year and Labor was electrified by its federal election win in 2022.
The conference also saw Labor members strike down a motion to axe tougher anti-protest laws if the party takes Macquarie Street.
Labor helped the government pass the controversial new laws earlier this year, which could whack protesters with $22,000 fines and two years in jail, but amended it with carve outs for union action.
Earlier, Mr Minns leader said he couldn't fault everything the coalition had done but that no one could believe the government's best days were ahead.
He repeated promises to boost healthcare funding and nurse ranks, lift a public service wage cap, end privatisation and curb "rampant overdevelopment".
Mr Minns is up against Premier Dominic Perrottet, who took the state's top job a year ago from his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian after the Independent Commission Against Corruption revealed she was being investigated.
Labor deputy Prue Car said Mr Minns would be a premier everyone could be proud of.
"We know that going into this next election is going to be tough, is going to be tight," she said.
NSW's transport network and teacher shortage have been two of the biggest issues this year, with union members in both sectors holding multiple strikes.
Mr Minns said he would have NSW building its own train, tram, bus and ferry fleets again.
"We just need a government with the will and the belief to do it," he said.
Replacing the state's train network would be the first step under his hopeful future government.
On teachers, Mr Minns hoped to end the casualisation of the teacher workforce, creating 10,000 fixed teaching roles in the state by moving temporary workers into permanent positions.
"We won't just tell them they're valued, we'll show them," Mr Minns said.
The coalition government on Sunday sought to head off Mr Minns' pledge, making a similar promise to shift 10,000 temporary teachers into permanent positions.
Government frontbencher Natalie Ward said NSW Labor had no policies and no substance to offer the state.
"The Labor conference has shown that they have no new ideas ... they've come up with nothing to do with the cost of living, nothing to do with first homeowners," she said.
Ms Ward criticised Labor's proposal to build trains in NSW, saying the party hadn't costed the policy or set out how it planned to make the manufacturing promise a reality.
Australian Associated Press
