As the Minns mobile headed west on Tuesday morning,the Labor leader and his team made their first stop at Warragamba Dam in the Liberal electorate of Wollondilly.
Chris Minns is digging in following the release of the independent Parliamentary Budget Office’s election costings,which show the Coalition has not allocated funding for mega infrastructure projects such as metros,the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall or the northern beaches motorway.
NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns with opposition housing spokeswoman Rose Jackson and shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey during a visit to Warragamba Dam today.Credit:Nikki Short
Premier Dominic Perrottett last year promised he would fund the controversial $3 billion raising of the wall by 14 metres to mitigate flood risk in the Hawkesbury-Nepean region.
Minns said on Monday the PBO costings proved the controversial project,which he has committed to scrapping,could not go ahead without further privatisation.
“There’s no increase in debt. They haven’t provided any savings measures. So,there’s only one way to build it,and that is to sell off essential assets owned by the people of NSW,” he said.
“[Perrottet] said the same thing in the northern beaches ... he said the same thing about the Blue Mountains road tunnel underneath the Blue Mountains.”
But the Labor leader was also under pressure to justify his own signature policy to scrap the public sector wages cap of up to 3.5 per cent after the PBO cast doubt on Labor’s ability with promised productivity savings.
“We’ve been clear from day one when it comes to the economic principles associated with the wages cap. And we know that sitting down talking with essential workers with those strict rules in place delivers better outcomes. Indeed,if we don’t do it,you’ll see a repeat of what you’ve seen over the last four years:6500 nurses leaving the system in the last 12 months,” he said.
NSW State Labor leader Chris Minns (right,front) joins members of his leadership team on the campaign bus on Sunday.Credit:Dylan Coker
Senior Labor MPs on board the “zero-emissions” campaign bus on Tuesday include Penny Sharpe and Rose Jackson,the latter playing DJ (Harry Styles so far dominating the morning playlist).
The bus was back on the road about 11.30am,but travelling media and Labor staff were soon forced off the electric vehicle and onto a good old-fashioned gas-guzzling coach.
It seems the battery ran out of charge – let’s hope it’s no omen for the rest of the Labor campaign this week.