Barry O'Farrell

At the 1995 New South Wales election, O'Farrell 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 held it until 2015. O'Farrell joined the Shadow Ministry in 1998 and served two periods as Deputy Leader (1999–2002 and 2003–2007).

Following the Liberal-Nationals' defeat at the 2007 state election (their fourth in a row), O'Farrell challenged Peter Debnam for the Liberal leadership. 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, winning the largest majority government in New South Wales history.

On 16 April 2014, O'Farrell announced his intention to resign as party leader and NSW Premier as well as Minister for Western Sydney after misleading a New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation. ICAC subsequently found "that there was no intention on Mr O'Farrell's part to mislead". He formally resigned on 17 April as Liberal Party leader and on 24 November 2014, O'Farrell announced his intention not to stand for re-election at the 2015 NSW election.