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Former premier Barry O’Farrell out of NSW election

Former NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has announced he won’t contest next year’s state election.

He advised the Liberal Party Ku-ring-gai branch members and his successor, Premier Mike Baird, on Monday, he said in a statement posted on Twitter.

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“For almost 20 years, I’ve been honoured to serve my community and I thank local residents and branch members for their strong support over five campaigns,” he said in the statement.

Mr O’Farrell listed the achievements of his government, including the Opal Card, improvements in literacy and numeracy rates among students and public sector reforms.

“Finally I want to thank Mike Baird for his support,” he said.

“Having set the gold standard for treasurers, Mike’s quickly established a platinum standard for Australian premiers.”

Mr O’Farrell quit as NSW premier in April after giving misleading evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) about a $3000 bottle of wine from Liberal donor Nick Di Girolamo.

Mr O’Farrell denied receiving the wine but a day later was advised the ICAC had his handwritten note of thanks to Mr Di Girolamo for the wine.

He was replaced by Mike Baird who has staked his premiership on cleaning up NSW politics.

Mr O’Farrell remained the Liberal Party’s endorsed candidate to recontest his northern Sydney seat of Ku-ring-gai, which he holds on a 37 per cent margin.

Speculation has been rife Mr O’Farrell’s announcement to bow out of state politics was imminent.

There were reports earlier in the month, which the former premier dismissed as “more media buls***”.

He also dismissed reports he was sounding out colleagues about a possible switch to the federal upper house.

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