That one of the most intriguing points of Wednesday’s debate between the New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, and opposition leader, Chris Minns, came via the bizarre theatre of both men being asked to name their own children gives you some idea of where things are at 10 days out from the election.
Before it began, Nine dubbed its “great debate” as the hour which would decide the election.
In a campaign which has rarely soared to great heights, it’s fitting that hour was midday on a Wednesday.
Despite polling and popular opinion suggesting that the 25 March vote will be one of the closest in recent NSW history there has been a muted tone throughout the entire campaign.
Labor has, for months, hewed to a narrow message focused on cost-of-living relief and government services without offering any truly transformative policies on either.
The Coalition, weighed down by the baggage of 12 years in government, has struggled to craft a coherent argument for why it deserves four more.
Both of those faults were on display on Wednesday. Labor has sought to make its lack of ambition a net positive by arguing the state’s surging debt means it’s irresponsible to embark on a spending spree. A fair argument. Minns has also repeatedly promised to be “upfront” with voters about the economic headwinds facing the state. Again, good news.
The problem though, which came through on Wednesday, is that approach can make Minns appear pessimistic without any clear notion of how to improve things.
One of Labor’s signature policies in this election is to remove the government’s cap on public sector wages, but on Wednesday Minns refused to guarantee that teachers and nurses would get a pay rise if he becomes premier.
“Well, we need to do that around the table,” he said after repeated questioning from the panel. “And that needs to be a negotiation that can only happen in government.”
Which, while accepting that the Coalition has sought (largely unsuccessfully) to use the abolition of the cap as evidence it is a better economic manager, seems an oddly cautious note to take when higher wages are, presumably, the point.
Minns also opened himself to attack by simultaneously criticising the Coalition for a series of infrastructure projects including new Metro lines in south-west and western Sydney which Labor says don’t stack up financially, while also accusing it of allowing too much development in western Sydney without adequate infrastructure.
“This is the lack of vision that comes with a Labor government,” Perrottet countered.
“You’ve got to plan for the future and that’s exactly what we’re doing with the Metro trains. I remember being a young kid and Labor promised the north-west Metro [and] never delivered it because they’re so focused on the short term.”
But the premier often seemed at sea during the debate. While Minns always appears relaxed to a fault (he told Perrottet to “calm down” during the debate) the premier is an animated speaker who enjoys going off-the-cuff during press conferences. But he seemed rattled by the occasion at times, struggling to counter the opposition leader’s attacks on the government’s record on privatisation and debt.
Which really goes to the heart of the Coalition’s problem in this election. For 12 years it has told voters in NSW that “asset recycling” – privatisation by another word – was the key to its impressive record on new infrastructure.
But now, thanks to Labor’s canny campaigning and a broader dissatisfaction in the electorate, thanks to issues such as increasingly expensive privatised toll roads, it has been forced to disavow that record.
Perrottet was again forced to rule out the sale of Sydney Water despite documents on Tuesday showing the government at least contemplated the sale, while also insisting he could continue to fund billions of dollars worth of new infrastructure promises. He was also forced to clarify who would be eligible for the government’s signature ‘Kids Future Fund’ after the treasurer, Matt Kean, struggled to answer questions about the policy earlier in the day.
In the end, perhaps the most telling part of the debate came during a quick-fire round of one word answers.
Both men answered “no” when asked if the former premier Gladys Berejiklian had been treated unfairly by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and, in a statement which will take on a new relevance after next Saturday when the prospect of a minority government will loom large, said that they would not do deals with the crossbench.
Then the moderator, Peter Overton, challenged Perrottet and Minns to name their children in order of age (the premier has seven, Minns three).
They did, correctly, a welcome moment of clarity in a campaign otherwise shrouded in a fug of meh.
