NSW Budget office leaves question mark over Labor’s wages plan

Samantha HutchinsonNational reporter

Mar 20, 2023 – 5.36pm

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NSW Labor will leave the state with lower borrowings and potentially higher revenues than the Coalition by 2025, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, in an analysis which fails to tally the cost of a Labor plan to scrap a public sector wage cap and fires a warning over the feasibility of savings pledges.

Just five days out from the NSW election, independent analysis of Liberal and Labor spending commitments has indicated that Labor’s $5.3 billion pre-election platform could shave $1.25 billion off the state’s borrowings in 2025-26 while boosting government revenues by $226 million in the same year.

Samantha Hutchinson is the AFR's National Reporter. Most recently, she was CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Before that, she covered Victorian and NSW politics and business for The Australian, the AFR and BRW Magazine.