The New South Wales (NSW) Labor government will be forced to delicately negotiate with the crossbench to pass legislation after the Liberal Party scored the final seat in the upper house.
More than three weeks since polls closed, the NSW Electoral Commission distributed preferences on Wednesday, leaving the upper house chamber evenly split between the left and right wings.
The government and coalition opposition will have 15 members each, meaning Labor will either need the support of a right-wing crossbencher to pass bills or must convince a right-wing MP to take the president’s chair.
Liberal Party candidate Rachel Merton, a former Australian Classification Board member and Perrottet government staffer, narrowly won the 21st and final seat from the Animal Justice Party’s Alison Waters….