Energy bill rebates, tolls, privatisation and long-term economic plans, the New South Wales election campaign’s greatest hits, have played out in the final televised debate.
Premier Dominic Perrottet was immediately on the back foot in front of 100 undecided voters, defending the Coalition’s history of privatisation while insisting it wasn’t in his future.
Voters also took him to Sydney’s network of toll roads, including one man’s $50 levy on a return trip to the coast.
Labor leader Chris Minns joined in on the action, questioning if the Premier regretted starving health workers of a pay rise in the first year of the pandemic.
After hearing the answer, he decided he had a better one.
“It was a wrong call,” he told the News Corp forum in Penrith.
Tweet from @SkyNewsAust
In one of the few statements to draw applause, he said if the Premier said “I made the wrong call” the community would accept the pandemic was a difficult time.
“But to double down on it, I think leads many people to the indication you could do it again,” Mr Minns said.
The Premier said the government was forced to navigate financially and economically challenging times and ensure everyone had a job.
The pair ruled out doing deals with the crossbench to form government and were in unison in support for a Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Mr Perrottet took aim at Labor’s economic credentials and pointed to the lack of detail the opposition had provided about uncapped public sector wages.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has suggested a uniform rise of one per cent over three years would cost the state $2.6 billion.
“They can’t cost a policy that will cost the budget billions of dollars,” the premier said.
“That means households and families right across NSW will not be better off under them, they’ll continue to go backwards.”
The leaders also fielded repeated questions about hospitals, including specialists in Westmead and public maternity wards.
“The hospital system is in crisis,” Mr Minns said.
“We are doing everything we can to continue to invest in our health system and recruit more staff,” Mr Perrottet said.
The lack of fireworks wasn’t lost on Sky News commentator Chris Kenny, whose show was shrunk to 30 minutes to allow for the debate.
“Tweedledum and Tweedledee, they even dress the same and they sound the same,” Kenny said.
The tough questions had started hours earlier for the Premier when his daily press conference was dominated by a February 14 ambulance callout to his family home.
At times frazzled, Mr Perrottet denied seeking special treatment when calling Health Minister Brad Hazzard after his wife fell ill and became “paralysed” in pain.
Mr Hazzard happened to be with the NSW Ambulance commissioner who arranged for a “low priority” ambulance.
“All I was aware of was that I’d spoken to the senior specialist. I had spoken to Dom Morgan. They said ‘you need to go home. Go straight home and be with your wife’,” the Premier told reporters.
Reporters teed up Mr Minns to take a swing, but he dead-batted, unsure how he would respond in the same situation.
“I’m not going to knock the Premier for the decision that he made,” he said.
“I am going to take issue with the government in relation to the performance in health.”
The Premier and Opposition Leader sang from the same song sheet when it came to pre-election violence outside a Sydney church where NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham was due to speak about parental rights.
“Violence in relation to democracy and elections has never been the hallmark of this country,” Mr Minns said.
Mr Perrottet said it was “disgraceful” and NSW had “no place for violence”.
Mr Latham meanwhile accused the activists of provoking “the wild scenes at Belfield”.
-AAP
