In the race towards the NSW election finish line, Premier Dominic Perrottet and Labor leader Chris Minns have focused on attacking each others’ economic credentials.
Mr Perrottet met with firefighters in regional NSW on Tuesday while Mr Minns started the day with a frontbench team run in western Sydney.
The leaders are back on the hustings with a packed schedule of events, spruiking their policies in a final bid to convince voters to support their candidates on Saturday.
The premier began the day in the Southern Tablelands town of Taralga, meeting with RFS volunteers as they prepared for a day of hazard reduction burning.
The area lost about 10,000 hectare in the devastating 2019-2020 summer bushfires.
With four days until polling day, Mr Perrottet is trying to shore up the must-win seat of Goulburn, which is held by Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman with a 3.1 per cent margin.
He visited the iconic Big Merino and announced $3.2 million to build a horseriding facility in the area for disabled residents.
Mr Perrottet also dropped in on local cafes where he played barista for a few minutes before getting back to the campaign trail, listening to residents’ concerns about staffing issues.
The day after the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) released its costings for the election policies made by the parties, both sides attacked each other’s economic credentials.
The coalition is estimated to deliver a $100 million surplus over the next four years, while Labor would add $1.4 billion, according to the budget office.
Mr Perrottet said Labor has a “black hole” in its costings after the PBO questioned the party’s pledge to scrap the government’s three per cent wage cap for public sector workers at zero cost to the bottom line.
Labor leader Chris Minns defended the party’s policy on Tuesday, telling reporters the decision to scrap a cap on wages would put NSW back in line with the rest of the country.
“It’s necessary to sit down and negotiate with our essential workers. I’m talking teachers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics,” he said.
Budget savings and productivity gains would be found during negotiations, and economic guardrails would be in place as the party talked with unions, Mr Minns said.
“We need to do this because under the coalition, under Mr Perrottet, he’s used the wages cap as a vice.
“His decision in July 2020 to reduce (wage) increases down to zero per cent has had a devastating impact on essential services.”
Labor said it has calculated $3 billion in savings in its budget that will fund public sector wage increases.
Treasurer Matt Kean also attacked Labor’s policies, saying the PBO analysis revealed Labor would have to cut projects to pay for to negotiate new pay deals with workers.
“Their budget black hole is growing by the day,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Minns began his morning running with the party’s frontbenchers in the Liberal-held seat of Oatley, before steering Labor’s campaign bus to the marginal Liberal seat of Wollondilly where he attacked the coalition for failing to fund its plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall.
“There is no money allocated for this project, not a cent,” Mr Minns told reporters from the dam’s viewing deck.
“The project that costs $3 billion to build.”
He warned more privatisation was on the cards if the coalition was re-elected.
It comes after the premier committed last year to raising the wall at Warragamba Dam, saying his government would fund the project without federal assistance if necessary.
It said the project could reduce the number of homes affected by major flooding from 15,000 to 5000.
Labor also announced it would make further reforms to the rental market, tightening data retention rules for real estate agents, and hold a review of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in rental disputes, as well as provide an additional $1 million for tenant advocacy services.
– AAP
