NSW needs cash to pay for Labor’s cost blow outs

Peter Debnam's Blog - Wednesday, 28th February 2007 

Yesterday, we learnt that NSW would be given extra revenue from the GST. This is welcome news, because NSW needs the cash.

Under the Iemma-Costa Labor Government the NSW budget is in deficit to tune of $500 million.

We have been given the extra GST revenue because our economy is falling behind the other states. The GST funds are effectively a compensation payment for the economic mismanagement of our State by the Iemma-Costa Labor Government.

Despite a national economic boom and other states moving ahead, the NSW budget is in deficit and the state economy is heading towards recession. And we pay more tax per person that in any other state.

Yet Labor says we’re heading in the right direction? If that’s true, then where exactly is Labor taking NSW?

People and families in NSW have every right to ask Morris Iemma and Labor where has all the money gone?

Well the answer is in cost blowouts and bungled infrastructure projects.

Since the last State election Government revenue under Labor has increased by 20%, yet Government expenditure has increased by almost 27%.

In 2002, Labor’s own Infrastructure Plan identified 88 infrastructure projects around the state worth $11.4 billion. Last year, it was revealed that these same Labor projects had total cost blowouts of $1.7 billion, with more than 40 years or 14,600 days in delays . That’s not what I call heading in the right direction.

No wonder people and families in NSW have had enough of Michael Costa as Treasurer, and his Assistant Treasurer Joe Tripodi. Yet Morris Iemma, who appointed them both, wants to keep them in the job.

Morris Iemma, Michael Costa and Joe Tripodi all believed it was the right for Labor to pay $25 million of tax payers money to the developers of the Lane Cove Tunnel to delay road closures until after the election, and now the tunnel won’t even be open before the election.

Labor’s decision to pay $25 million to the Lane Cove Tunnel operators, yet refuse to reduce the tax burden on families and small business in NSW should not be rewarded.

Like the Cross City Tunnel before it, the Lane Cove Tunnel has become a symbol of Labor’s failure to manage Sydney’s traffic problems and deliver large infrastructure projects.

This is how Labor spends taxpayers money in NSW. This needs to change if we are going to fix NSW.

That’s why I have announced a plan to cut payroll tax and land tax to reduce the tax burden on families and small and business in NSW and get our economy moving again.

Supporting Labor at this election is an approval of what Labor has done to this state over the past twelve years. So, instead, let’s vote to fix NSW.

Regards,

Peter Debnam

PS. For more details on our policies to reduce taxes in NSW, as well as tackle the water crisis by using recycling rather than desalination to boost our drinking supplies got to http://www.peterdebnam.com.au.

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