Do we like Chris Minns?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A genuine LGBTQ+ ally on the record, held back by contested trans comments, a struck-down protest law and a donations cloud he denies.
Minns is the NSW Premier, a Labor man who has run the state since 2023. He's lining up for the March 2027 election and has already talked about when he'll leave. He told a press conference he won't be in the top job forever and conceded he “might get beat” at the next election.
The big recent mess is a donations saga. A former Labor staffer alleged in an affidavit that Minns asked how to handle unreceipted cash from a 2014 Hurstville fundraiser. The Electoral Commission reopened its inquiry in May 2026, after closing it in 2023. Minns denies it, says he “never asked anyone to break the law”, and accuses committee members of political drip-feeding.
By June, the Commission told a parliamentary hearing that former Labor MP Ernest Wong and ex-Chinese Friends of Labor chair Jonathan Yee had been charged over an alleged scheme to hide the source of donations to his 2015 campaign. It said it has no other active lines of investigation and that no ongoing investigation involves the Premier. His office says the donations were received in good faith and later repaid. Not charged, not cleared in everyone's eyes, and plenty of mud still flying.
On the harm check, the gay rights side is the best part of his record. In 2024 he apologised in Parliament to people convicted under the old anti-gay laws, saying “We are sorry for every person convicted under legislation that should never have existed.” The trans side is messier: in May 2026 he said biological differences between people born male and female need to be reflected in the law, and the Greens' LGBTQIA+ spokesperson called that “extremely concerning”. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a pragmatic line on prisons and sport or as a cave to culture-war politics.
The protest laws are the other stain. After the Bondi attack his government passed powers letting police block rallies in key parts of Sydney, and in April 2026 the Court of Appeal struck them down as an unacceptable burden on political communication. Minns said he was “obviously disappointed” and “I don't regret moving that legislation at all”. Supporters say he was responding to a terror attack, while critics say it was a blunt tool aimed at Palestine protests.
So: a bloke with a real record for LGBTQ+ people, a contested trans position, a court loss on free speech and an unresolved donations cloud he strongly denies. None of it adds up to a pattern of harm in his own words, and nothing found shows him mistreating people. We found no climate or migration statements from him that we could check, so that part of the picture is thin.