Meet new NSW Prime Minister Chris Minns and the “amazing woman” behind his dramatic rise to the top job as he sets his sights on supporting the state’s teachers.
The father-of-three and MP for Kogarah was introduced as NSW’s 47th Prime Minister on Saturday night to loud applause from excited Labor supporters.
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Chris Minns thanked his ‘wonderful’ wife Anna as a crowd of excited Labor fans in Brighton Le Sands began chanting her name.
“I’m really glad she didn’t run, I’d be in trouble!” joked the 47-year-old.
“Thank you very much for everything, dear.”
In his first appearance as Prime Minister, Mr Minns has pledged to focus on improving government support for teachers and ‘building the teaching profession’.
The father-of-three and MP for Kogarah was introduced as NSW’s 47th Prime Minister on Saturday night to loud applause from excited Labor supporters
The ‘amazing’ woman behind NSW’s newly elected Prime Minister ran several businesses while raising three children (pictured Anna and Chris Minns on March 24)
Mr Minns said that if the teaching profession was not given adequate support, NSW would miss out on the ‘best and brightest’ teachers.
In an interview with news.com.au, the Prime Minister said he was concerned about the declining number of Australians choosing to become teachers.
“We need to be in a position where we’re working with people that we need to run public services in NSW, and teachers are a really important part of that,” he said.
Mr. Minns grew up in Penshurst, Sydney’s St George district, and attended the University of New England at Parramatta and Princeton University in New Jersey.
He said his parents instilled in him the “opportunity that comes from a good home and a good education.” His mother worked as a lawyer and his father was a school principal.
Like his former opponent Dominic Perrottet, Mr. Minns was raised Catholic. He has been sober for over a year after giving up alcohol after the lockdowns ended.
The couple share three sons – Joe, Nicholas and George – and live in Kogarah in southern Sydney
In 2015, Ms Minns (pictured) was managing director of TerraCycle Australia, a waste management company that encourages users to recycle soft plastics
Mr Minns (pictured with his wife Anna) grew up in Sydney’s St George area and attended the University of New England at Parramatta and Princeton, New Jersey
Before landing the top job, there was a time when the father of three stayed home with the kids while his wife worked tirelessly on a new venture.
The company was TerraCycle, a waste management company that encourages users to recycle soft plastics that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Mr Minns admitted that the year it took his wife to set up the company ‘felt like ten’.
In addition to being a stay-at-home dad, Mr. Minns also worked as a part-time firefighter and as a Hurstville City Councilman.
Ms. Minns has supported her husband every step of the way despite juggling several businesses of her own and helping to raise their three young children.
The power couple first met during a Labor campaign in a Pizza Hut in 1999 and 24 years later they are raising three sons at their home in Kogarah in southern Sydney.
‘From the moment I saw it [Anna] at Beverly Hills Pizza Hut in 1999, I knew she was the one,” Mr. Minns tweeted last year.
Chris and Anna Minns (pictured) first met during a Labor campaign in southern Sydney in 1999
The pair are pictured on Election Day in 2015 where Mr Minns won Kogarah’s seat
Ms Minns studied arts and law at the University of NSW where she was first introduced to politics after joining the youth wing of the ALP
Ms. Minns recently became CEO and co-founder of Boomerang Labs, described as a hub that connects businesses and government agencies with founders and innovators to address challenges such as design and resource utilization.
The businesswoman studied arts and law at the University of NSW, where she joined Young Labour, the youth wing of the ALP, and worked as a criminal prosecutor for the Department of Public Prosecutions.
But it was her passion for politics that led her to meet and fall in love with her future husband while campaigning for former Labor Prime Minister Bob Carr in 1999.
Ahead of the 2023 election, Mr Minns vowed to return the steady support he had received from his “wonderful” wife throughout his political career.
“I don’t know what she’s going to do when this is all over, but if I can be there for her (career), I definitely will,” he said.
“She does a lot for me and for us. I really trust her. I really love her,’ he said.
Ms Minns campaigned with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s partner Jodie Haydon in southern Sydney’s Mortdale during the run-up to Saturday’s state election
Mr Minns has promised to return the steady support he has received from his ‘wonderful’ wife Anna (the pair are pictured just hours before he was announced as NSW’s 47th Prime Minister)