NSW Labor's biggest Achilles heel? Hubris
When NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey heard that his third budget was widely being described as boring, it would have been a relief. Mookhey is known for his colourful frames, eclectic music taste and a penchant for the quirky, but he would take 'boring' over most other descriptors that could be thrown at his budget.
No big cash splashes, no reckless spending. Indeed, Mookhey even forecast a slim surplus (yes, just $1 billion) in coming years – a lofty promise that may well not materialise. It's contained in the budget papers, nonetheless.
But also in those budget papers is a clear signal that NSW Labor's pious stance in opposition is starting to take a different turn since it found itself in power. Hubris has started to seep into NSW Labor as it settles into government.
Here's a good example. In opposition, Labor boasted it would stop a treasurer from spending on a whim. The Coalition government had seen pork-barrelling, in the words of former premier Gladys Berejiklian, as 'not illegal'. It pork-barrelled to curry favour with voters. Labor vowed to do things differently, as a matter of principle.
A Labor government would abolish a little-known but long-existing 'Advance to the Treasurer', which allowed for a pot of money to be set aside for whoever held that office to deal with unforseen expenses. 'The Labor Party will promote stronger budgeting and clean up imprudent ad hoc spending,' the ALP boasted in its election costing request to the Parliamentary Budget Office, 'by eliminating the Advance to the Treasurer.'
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Scrapping that advance, according to the budget office, would save $50 million, although it warned that it would 'reduce the government's capacity to undertake unexpected discretionary expenditures'. Axe it and the government would need to find savings elsewhere in the budget.
In the Coalition's final budget, delivered by then-treasurer Matt Kean, $120 million was set aside in the treasurer's advance for state contingencies, although it was not all spent before they were turfed from power. Labor stuck to its word, and there was no advance in its first budget. By its second budget, however, an eerily similar fund emerged in its appropriation bill.
Called a ' special appropriation for the treasurer', $322 million was set aside in last year's budget for state contingencies, essential services and 'expenditure related to the government's election commitments'. No specifics but a big pot of money. In this budget, that has ballooned to $868 million, again to be used on such things as election commitments.
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