Michael Egan: Tragedy as major NSW political figure dies aged 75

The longest-serving treasurer in NSW has died aged 75.

Michael Egan was the Labor treasurer under the state’s longest, continuously-serving premier, Bob Carr, from April 1995 to 2005.

He had been the first treasurer to serve from the upper house.

Mr Egan’s political career began in October 1978 when he won the Sutherland Shire seat of Cronulla, making him to date the beachside electorate’s only Labor MP in a usually ultra-safe Liberal seat.

That was the election that saw Neville Wran’s re-elected Labor government win the usually safe Liberal seats of Manly on Sydney’s northern beaches and Willoughby on the lower north shore as the Coalition was annihilated. 

The former MP from Labor’s Right faction shifted to the Legislative Council after losing Cronulla in the 1984, which was also Wran’s last campaign. 

He became treasurer when Labor returned to power in 1995 after seven years in the political wilderness.

Unusually for a Labor treasurer, Mr Egan presided over nine successive Budget surpluses, with Mr Carr determined to demonstrate Labor could be good economic managers following the state bank disasters in Victoria and South Australia.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and his Treasurer Daniel Mookhey – who both hail from Labor’s Right faction – have remembered Mr Egan for his long career to serving the people of NSW

‘NSW has lost a dedicated and accomplished public servant, the Honourable Michael Egan AO,’ they said on Thursday.