The NSW Budget was handed down last week and the Parliament had an opportunity for a serious, constructive debate about our State's future.
Unfortunately, what we got from Dominic Perrottet and Matt Kean was not a budget in the best interests of the future of NSW, but a budget in the best interests of the NSW Liberals and Nationals.
After 12 years of Liberal and National Government, after four Liberal Premiers and four Liberal Treasurers, we are headed towards $182.2 billion in gross debt, our AAA credit rating is shredded, and interest repayments will grow at 24 per cent a year - every single year. By 2025-26, the NSW Liberals hope to saddle every single person in NSW with more than $21,500 each in debt, and interest repayments of more than $700 every year.
There are some parts of the budget I do support. The Government's initiative to put $743 million into palliative care is a welcome announcement. The Closing the Gap package to co-design and support locally focused activities is also a welcome announcement.
However, only Labor has a plan to help the household budget, to create local jobs and to reset our education system.
A Minns Labor Government will build 100 new preschools in NSW, owned by the public and co-located with primary schools.
We will bring back domestic manufacturing, by setting minimum local content requirements.
We will introduce toll relief for drivers across our state and stop the Liberals' toll road privatisation that results in never ending toll increases.
We will stop the obsession with mass privatisation, and we'll abolish the Transport Asset Holding Entity keeping our trains in public hands.
And we will end the rorts.
This is just the beginning, and I can't wait to work with you to change the government.
