SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Australian&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;Party&nbsp;in New South Wales&nbsp;state&nbsp;claimed&nbsp;power&nbsp;in an election on Saturday night, with voters backing the centre-left&nbsp;party's pledges on anti-privatisation and cost of living relief.
The election in&nbsp;Australia's&nbsp;most populous&nbsp;state&nbsp;had been touted as a tight race between the incumbent Liberal-National coalition and&nbsp;Labor, but the vote count on Sunday showed&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;on track to take the 47 seats needed to form majority government, after three terms in opposition.
The win marks further endorsement of the&nbsp;party&nbsp;of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who joined his&nbsp;state&nbsp;counterpart Chris Minns in Sydney on polling day.
"A huge congratulations to @ChrisMinnsMP ... and the whole NSW&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;team on your election victory," Albanese said on Twitter late on Saturday.
Labor's win in New South Wales means the&nbsp;party&nbsp;now governs at&nbsp;state&nbsp;and federal level across&nbsp;Australia's&nbsp;mainland, leaving island&nbsp;state&nbsp;Tasmania as the conservative outlier.
"After 12 years in opposition the people of New South Wales have voted for a fresh start," Minns told supporters in Sydney late on Saturday.
"The people of New South Wales voted to put in a government that would put people at the heart of all decision-making".
Labor's campaign in the&nbsp;state&nbsp;featured a pledge to rule out further privatisation of&nbsp;state&nbsp;assets, and a promise to boost public sector wages, amid cost-of-living concerns.
Stubborn inflation has posed a challenge for the Reserve Bank of Australia, which this month lifted its cash rate to its highest level in more than a decade.
Speaking on Sunday, Minns said&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;had "commonsense initiatives" that would help bring down cost of living in the&nbsp;state. His government, once sworn in, would prepare laws to protect government utility Sydney Water from a future sell-off, he also said.
Outgoing premier Dominic Perrottet, a social conservative Catholic and former&nbsp;state&nbsp;treasurer, was elected premier in 2021 after his predecessor resigned after a corruption watchdog probe into whether she was involved in conduct that "constituted or involved a breach of public trust".
Albanese, in the lead up to polling day, had urged voters in his home&nbsp;state&nbsp;to back&nbsp;Labor, saying the coalition government was "in shambles" due to infighting.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith, editing by Deepa Babington and Michael Perry)

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Labor party takes power in 'fresh start' for Australia's biggest state