Today's half year budget review confirms that Labor has lost control of the NSW budget, with the budget bottom line worsening in just three months by a staggering $1.7 billion this financial year and $3.7 billion over the four years to 2026-27.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey is blaming everyone else for the worsened budget result, but it's time for Chris Minns and him to take responsibility for the poor results just three months after their first budget.
The half-year review reveals that in just three months the state's public sector employee expenses have already gone up by $1 billion over the four years to 2026-27, without including yesterday's half a billion-dollar deal with the paramedics or the impact of Labor's new union-dominated industrial relations system.
Despite blaming the worsened budget results on Federal Labor's infrastructure funding cuts, the Minns Labor Government has failed to confirm whether the 17 infrastructure projects will be completed at all.
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has slammed Chris Minns and Daniel Mookhey for losing control of the State's budget in less than three months.
"The Minns Labor Government handed down its first budget just three months ago, and it's taken just three months for a $3.7 billion deterioration," Mr Speakman said.
"If this is what happens in just three months, I'm very concerned it will only get worse over the next three years."
"Labor has failed to provide cost of living relief to families who'll feel the pain of higher energy costs and grocery bills as they sweat through summer."
Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope has called out the Treasurer for his failure to exercise fiscal responsibility which will only hurt NSW families and businesses for years to come.
"This review is the NSW taxpayers' nightmare before Christmas – Labor's inability to balance the state's books is now on display for all to see," Mr Tudehope said.
"It's only been three months since Treasurer Mookhey's first budget and it's already in shambles. He can try to blame Federal Labor for his own inability to manage a budget, but it wasn't Anthony Albanese that agreed to an unfunded 29% pay rise for paramedics".
"Despite his Federal Labor mates cutting $3.6 billion in infrastructure funding for NSW, the Treasurer is just hoping Prime Minister Albanese will fix his budget blackhole."
"Instead of wishful thinking, what NSW needs is a Premier and Treasurer who'll stand up to Canberra and get NSW's infrastructure funding restored."
The claim by Finance Minister Courtney Houssos that the Minns Labor Government has 'instituted fiscal discipline' is a cruel joke.
The abandonment of Labor's pre-election promise to identify productivity offsets for wage rises means more savage cuts to health and other services - on top of the 4.1% real cut to health spending this year, 3.6% real cut to education spending, 1.8% real cut to police spending, and a more than 5.5% real cut to both TAFE and Fire and Rescue spending, as well as the $150 million already ripped out from palliative care.
