By Farid Farid and Jacob Shteyman in Sydney

The NSW premier and the man tipped to claim his job have cast their votes as the major parties make a desperate last-minute pitch to sway undecided voters in a series of key Sydney seats.

Premier Dominic Perrottet is seeking a fourth consecutive four-year term for his Liberal-National coalition, while Labor leader Chris Minns is hoping to return his party to government after 12 years on the opposition benches.

Labor is the strong favourite to win the election, leading the polls and overwhelmingly ahead in betting agency odds.

The premier voted in Beecroft in the morning, accompanied by his wife Helen and the couple’s youngest daughter, Celeste, as school volunteers sold colourful cupcakes and sausages to punters.

“It’s a very important day for the future of our state. There’s a lot at stake”, Mr Perrottet said after voting.

“Our party has been a team for over 12 years that has transformed NSW. We’ve turned the economy around, built the schools and hospitals, the trains and motorways that have transformed people’s lives”.

Mr Perrottet also lauded the coalition’s economic credentials as helping to get families through a period of rampant inflation.

“You can’t support households if you don’t have a strong budget. It is strong economic and financial management that ensures downward pressure on household budgets… and we’ve done that,” he said.

Across the city in his marginal seat of Kogarah, Mr Minns cast his vote shortly after midday alongside his wife Anna and children.

He said Labor’s plan was to rebuild essential services beginning with hospitals and put an end to privatisation of state assets.

“Our message to undecided voters before polls close at six o’clock tonight is vote for change,” he told reporters.

“Vote for a fresh start for NSW, for a team that’s got a plan for essential services, for our schools and for our hospitals, who’s going to stand up against privatisation and really put the people of NSW first.”

Mr Perrottet later headed to East Hills, one of the state’s most marginal seats, in a final push to bolster the Liberals’ result.

Both leaders have campaigned hard in vital seats in Sydney’s west, where one in 10 Australians live and many electorates are on a knife edge.

On the eve of the election, Newspoll showed Labor leading the coalition 54.5 to 45.5 on a two-party preferred basis, putting Labor on a path to claim the 10 seats needed to form a majority government.

The poll put Labor’s primary vote at 38 per cent compared to the coalition vote at 35 per cent and found Mr Minns had overtaken Mr Perrottet as preferred premier.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lent his support to Mr Minns’ pitch for premier, campaigning for Labor in the Liberal-held seat of Ryde before a planned appearance in the Greens-held seat of Balmain, which Labor is hoping to seize.

He said a string of senior Liberal ministers “bailing out” before the state election showed the Perrottet government “doesn’t even have confidence in itself”.

“It’s time for a change of government and I hope that happens today,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

A raft of minor party and independent candidates vying for the cross bench could make the difference in the event of a minority government, with the Greens and teals vowing to hold the government to account on climate and other progressive reforms.

Back in Beecroft, Bernard James, a 32-year-old lawyer who commutes to Parramatta for work, said he voted for the Liberals as the premier was a strong leader and the metro line had cut his commute time.

But he had concerns about the Liberals’ cohesion, pointing to several corruption scandals that have dogged the party in recent years.

“Hopefully he wins and the next government isn’t controlled by the independents,” Mr James told AAP.