 Baird again sought, this time successfully, Liberal Party preselection for the seat of Manly and went on to defeat the sitting independent member David Barr by 3.4% at the 2007 state election.After initially serving in a range of junior shadow ministries, Baird was promoted to the position of Shadow Treasurer in 2008 and touted as a future Liberal leader.Following the election of the O'Farrell government in 2011, Baird was appointed Treasurer, although O'Farrell removed some of Baird's ministerial responsibilities, transferring the authority for land tax, gaming tax, payroll tax, public service superannuation and the Office of State Revenue to Greg Pearce, the Minister for Finance and Services.