Barry O'Farrell

Barry O'Farrell

Barry Robert O'Farrell MP, (born 24 May 1959) is an Australian politician and is the 43rd Premier of New South Wales and Minister for Western Sydney. He has been the Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party since 2007, and a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since 1995, representing Northcott until 1999 and representing Ku-ring-gai since 1999.

Born in Melbourne in 1959, his father's Army career saw his family move around Australia ending up in Darwin in the Northern Territory, where he finished his education at St John’s College. In 1977 O'Farrell moved to Canberra to study at the Australian National University, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts. After working for a number of Federal and State Liberal Party of Australia MPs, O'Farrell served as the State Director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 1992 to 1995.

At the March 1995 New South Wales state election, O'Farrell stood for, and was elected to, the safe Liberal seat of Northcott in northern Sydney. Following the seat's abolition in the 1998 redistribution he secured selection for the equally safe seat of Ku-ring-gai in 1999 and has held it ever since. O'Farrell joined the Shadow Ministry in 1998 and served two periods as Deputy Leader (1999-2002 and 2003-20017). Following the Liberals failure at the 2007 State election (their fourth in a row), O'Farrell challenged party Leader Peter Debnam. Debnam withdrew from the contest on the day of the ballot and O'Farrell was elected unopposed as the Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party and consequently as Leader of the Opposition. He became Premier in a landslide at the 2011 election.