THE NSW Labor Party will hold a snap nomination process to fill a vacancy in the upper house after the former planning minister Tony Kelly suddenly resigned two months into an eight-year term.
The former primary industries minister Steve Whan is the likely replacement for Mr Kelly, who announced his resignation yesterday, ''effective immediately''.
It is understood the decision caught the party by surprise.
Mr Kelly was embroiled in controversy in his final weeks as planning minister after he changed the rules relating to the $6 billion Barangaroo development to frustrate a court case being brought by opponents.
He was also minister at the time of the controversial government purchase for $12 million of the Currawong site at Pittwater just days before the election.
The then chief executive of the Land and Property Management Authority, Warwick Watkins, was sent on ''immediate leave'' after the deal, which was not approved by Mr Kelly or the then premier Kristina Keneally, and has been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Mr Kelly, who has 14 years parliamentary service, is the third Labor MP to have resigned from the upper house since the election. He follows the former powerbroker Eddie Obeid and the former attorney-general John Hatzistergos.
Mr Kelly said he wanted to ''make way for the next generation of Country Labor representatives'' and that time away from family and home in Wellington factored into his decision.
Labor head office opened nominations yesterday afternoon and expects to appoint Mr Kelly's successor on Friday.
It hopes to install a new MP in the upper house at a joint sitting of Parliament as early as Tuesday.
Mr Whan, who lost his seat of Monaro at the election, is deputy chief of staff to the federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke. He was being considered as a replacement for Mr Obeid, but the party settled on Walt Secord.
