the resignation of former Fahey Government Minister Jim Longley. In 1999 he was promoted to the Shadow Ministry as the Shadow Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning, Sydney Water and Youth Affairs. In the leadup to the 2003 election, Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski was struggling in the polls against Premier Bob Carr. On 25 March 2002, Brogden announced a challenge. Three days later on 28 March 2002, he succeeded in a 15–14 vote, becoming the youngest ever leader of a state or federal Liberal Party. What was not known at the time was that state Liberal director Scott Morrison had a plan to have Chikarovski replaced by Malcolm Turnbull, with the plan abandoned as a result of Brogden's successful challenge. Turnbull and Morrison went on to be elected to Federal Parliament and in 2015 Turnbull became Prime Minister and Morrison his Treasurer. Morrison succeeded Turnbull as Prime Minister in 2018. On becoming Opposition Leader, he resigned from his previous portfolios, but took on the new shadow ministries of Ethnic Affairs and Treasury. At the 2003 election the Liberals won one seat from Labor and lost one to Labor. Notwithstanding the electoral defeat, Brogden improved his and the party's standing in the polls over the next two years. For part of 2005 the Coalition was in front of Labor , with many people believing that Brogden would win the 2007 election, especially when Bob Carr resigned from politics and Morris Iemma was elected as the new Premier. Meanwhile, Brogden confronted the government over a number of issues, often focussing on health and police corruption. He aggressively pursued the Carr government over its involvement in the Orange Grove affair, in which a shopping centre was shut down, allegedly for zoning reasons, amidst claims of political pressure from The Westfield Group, which ran a neighbouring shopping centre. Despite the improvement in the opposition's opinion-poll ratings during 2004 and early 2005, Brogden's hopes that he would gain the premiership in 2007 were not to be fulfilled. He came under fire for offensive behaviour at a function in Sydney on 29 July 2005. At this function, he was quoted by the media as having described Helena Carr, the Premier's Malaysian-born wife, as a "mail-order bride". More specifically, Brogden said Carr could "ship his mail-order bride back to where she came from, for all I care". Brogden later publicly apologised for this remark. He was also