Neglect exposed at campaign launch

The NSW Liberal's campaign launch fell flat on its face last Monday and was tantamount to an admission the government doesn’t have a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis, the underinvestment in our schools or the issues in our health system.

17 March 2023

 

NSW is experiencing a cost of living crisis now, with energy bills up 26 per cent in the last 6 months, tolls up over six per cent in January 2023, and suffering under 10 interest rate rises in a row - on top of the fact that NSW residents already pay more state taxes than any other jurisdiction - most families simply can’t afford their ‘future fund’ scheme.

 

Research carried out by NCOSS in July 2022 found that 52 per cent of people had no money set aside for emergencies, while research by Budget Direct Home Insurance from before the COVID pandemic found most people can’t can cover $1,000 in an emergency.

 

The truth is, the families who need the most support are the ones who won’t be able to afford to participate.

 

Meanwhile the people of NSW are facing serious problems right now:

 

68,000 people walked out of emergency departments without treatment in the last 3 months

 

More than 3,000 vacancies for teachers across NSW and thousands of classes without teachers

 

Trains not running on time, if at all

 

Over 4,000 kids on the elective surgery waiting list - and over 1,100 of which have to wait longer than clinically recommended

 

The current problems facing NSW need to be fixed now with solutions that can be delivered immediately - not in 18 years time with Dominic Perrottet's future-fund that would then have little real value.

 

The problem is that Dominic Perrottet has no plans to solve these issues now - he wants to fix the problems of today using the bank of mum and dad.

 

Perrottet said that the government would create a trust account for every child aged under 10, seeded with $400 of government money and then bolstered annually by matching government with contributions of up to $400.

 

Under the plan, costing $850 million over four years, parents will be able to contribute a maximum of $1000 into the account a year, with government co-contributions capped at $4000.

 

As the Coalition trails in the polls and cost of living and housing affordability issues bite, Mr Perrottet is hoping that their policy would "future-proof" the finances of generations to come.

 

Yet, with government and family contributions combined each child's fund at 18 years-of-age would only be worth $28,500. A paltry sum that would hardly cover the deposit for a home in the distant future or future-proof finances.

 

The plan is likely to come under fire from economists who are despairing at the inflationary impact of pre-election spending commitments – including a $115 billion infrastructure pipeline and a combined $22 billion in headline commitments – after the state’s deficit widened by $670 million in a month, and sagging coal prices shaved $560 million off forecast royalty revenues.

 

Shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey took aim at the Coalition’s future fund policy and the premier, who he said had traded off the finances of the future to be re-elected.

 

“At a time when interest rates are skyrocketing, mortgages are exploding, families don’t have the spare money lying around to put into Mr Perrottet’s bank account,” Mr Mookhey said. “It seems as though the families that need the help the most will benefit the least from this policy.”

 

The Liberal campaign launch announcement was nothing more than a thought bubble that won’t fix the teachers and nurses shortage or the underinvestment in our education and health systems.