A Liberal who almost defeated NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns in the seat of Kogarah in 2019 has ruled out running in the 2023 state election.
The NSW Liberal party has recently been courting education entrepreneur Scott Yung to run as its candidate for the south Sydney seat of Kogarah again.
Mr Minns holds Kogarah on a 0.1 per cent margin, making it Labor's most marginal seat, and in 2019 Mr Yung lost to Mr Minns by only 69 first-preference votes.
But the party has failed in its attempts to convince Mr Yung to run again, and is yet to announce a candidate less than eight weeks out from the state election.
Mr Yung told the ABC the timing was not right.
"I don't think I'm in a position to dedicate myself full-time to running in Kogarah," he said.
"I think everyone in the community, each and every person must have a voice, however, at this stage I'm focused on growing my education business."
The ABC understands Mr Yung had wanted the party to arrange a fallback option for him for stepping away from his business, but an agreement could not be reached.
"I think Dom [Premier Dominic Perrottet] and our previous leader Gladys Berejiklian have done a fantastic job representing the community. Obviously there's more work to be done," Mr Yung said.
"What we're seeing is more and more people coming from all parts of the world to pick Australia as their home.
"I think it's so important that as they do, they are well represented. They have a voice."
Kogarah has the fourth-highest proportion of residents born overseas (55 per cent), and the second-highest born in north-east Asia (23.9 per cent).
Mr Yung's parents migrated from Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Yesterday, he joined Dominic Perrottet and other ministers in Sydney's CBD for Lunar New Year festivities.
'He's a strong candidate'
At a press conference, Mr Perrottet said it would be up to the party to negotiate Mr Yung's future.
"He's a strong candidate and from what I understand he'd do well, but ultimately that's a matter for the party," Mr Perrottet said.
Mr Yung, who is also the president of the Liberal Party Chinese Youth Council, said he might reopen his door to politics in the future.
"I miss campaigning, I love to have fun and I love going out there and listening to people's circumstances," Mr Yung said.
"I think one of the things that really, really hurt from the 2019 election was that so many people put their faith in me and they saw hope … they saw representation.
"I think not being able to be in parliament and not being able to take action on some of the things they shared was obviously a disappointment.
"One day, if the community thinks I'm good enough, I'd love to be a voice for them."
Yesterday, Mr Minns took aim at the Liberal party for not yet settling on a candidate to run against him on March 25.
"It's nearly February and they still don't have a candidate in the field," he said.
Mr Minns's eight-year reign is being challenged by gambling whistleblower Troy Stolz, who is running as an independent for Kogarah.
The seat has been held by Labor continuously since 1953.
