Dominic Perrottet’s state budget will sideline up to 12,000 public service jobs
STATE public servants face 11,800 job cuts as Treasurer Dominic Perrottet demands government departments find another 50 per cent in savings — and there’s no guarantee frontline staff will be protected. Read the FULL BUDGET BREAKDOWN
NSW
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STATE public servants face 11,800 job cuts as Treasurer Dominic Perrottet demands government departments find another 50 per cent in savings — and there’s no guarantee frontline staff will be protected.
Mr Perrottet’s order yesterday that departments must spend $1.6 billion less delivering services to NSW over the next four years came despite him unveiling a budget in rude economic health.
While announcing a $3.9 billion surplus, Mr Perrottet whacked the public sector with a three per cent “efficiency dividend”, up from two per cent.
It means funding allocations across the public sector will be cut by $139 million in 2018/19, $275 million in 2019/20, $408 million in 2020/21 and $803 million in 2021/22.
The Public Service Association slammed the cuts as dangerous.
“They have already brought agencies like National Parks and Family and Community Services to their knees. This will kill people,” PSA general secretary Stewart Little warned last night.
Mr Little said the number of highly qualified park rangers employed at National Parks had dropped by 100 to 200 in eight years under the government’s previously lower rates of efficiency dividend. It is claimed that increased fires and feral animals in national parks are a direct result.
The PSA estimates 11,800 jobs could go — 4720 of them in regional NSW.
PwC chief economist Jeremy Thorpe described the efficiency dividend as a “very blunt instrument”.
“An efficiency dividend doesn’t guarantee that efficiencies are found where they are most needed,” Mr Thorpe said.
The new “efficiency dividend” rate of three per cent is similar to that which the federal government implemented after the GFC. The rate for years in NSW was 1.5 per cent, before it was increased to 2 per cent in 2016/17.
The public sector also faces the double whammy of a 2.5 per cent wages growth cap.
“The Treasurer always wants to boast about the economic performance of NSW, but he refuses to lift his foot off the throat of some of the hardest-working people in the state,” said Mr Little.
Mr Perrottet boasted his government’s financial management had delivered strong economic fundamentals, buoyed by a massive infrastructure spend which jumps to $87 billion in this budget.
Stamp duty will be $1 billion lower than expected due to Sydney’s falling housing market but economic growth has exceeded the national average at 2.5 per cent for the past four years and is expected to come in at 3 per cent this year.
BUDGET SNAPSHOT
• $3.9bn budget surplus 2017/18, exceeding forecasts by $600m due to increased mining royalties and GST receipts. Projected surplus of $1.4bn in 2018/19
• Projected total revenue of $80.5bn in 2017/18 and $81.1bn in 2018/19
• $87bn infrastructure spend
• Stamp duty $1bn lower than we expected in last year’s Budget and $5.5bn lower in the three years to 2020/21.
• Unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent
Perrottet’s bold billion-dollar bid to stave off state debt
THE government will dish cash out to community groups based on a popular online vote in a bold new plan for a multibillion-dollar future fund.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet revealed the ambitious “NSW Generation Fund” yesterday — a multi-billion-dollar future fund for the state that exists to guard against future debt.
Mr Perrottet developed the world-first plan — where dividends are skimmed for community groups — in consultation with former federal treasurer Peter Costello.
The fund will be seeded with $3 billion immediately from the Budget and then boosted by returns earned from the 49 per cent stake in WestConnex the government will retain after the major motorway’s upcoming sale.
The fund will be a buffer for the state against future budget pressures with returns earned on the $3 billion used to offset debt in the future.
It will be “triple locked” with legislation to protect it from being dismantled in the future.
“The future fund is substantial reform … this is a fund like no other in the world,” Mr Perrottet said.
But the government was already fending off questions yesterday about how it will safeguard the fund’s grants system from being rorted.
And Mr Perrottet yesterday was forced to deny the community cash splash was pork barrelling to win votes ahead of the March election.
“Pork barrelling is certainly not the case because these are communities, these are people making decisions about where investments should be in their own communities and that is a great thing,” he said.
Labor labelled the move to have projects decided by voters “farcical”.
“Governments are meant to be the custodians of the public finances,” shadow treasurer Ryan Park said.
Mr Perrottet insisted there would be a series of checks in place to ensure the veracity of the community organisations getting money, with sums ranging from $20,000 to $200,000 per project.
A promotional video produced by the government to sell the plan included examples like Riding for the Disabled and community gardens.
The groups must be not-for-profit and non-political, the government said.
It’s understood Mr Perrottet has already approached people to be on a board which will scrutinise the projects when they apply for the funding before they are voted on.
Yesterday’s Budget included $27.5 million to kickstart the Community Dividends Project.
HOUSING: First homebuyers stamp of success in revenue fall
COOLING property prices might be good news for hopeful home hunters but they’ve delivered a near $1 billion hit to state revenue and NSW Treasury doesn’t see any return to price growth until mid-2019.
Lower than expected stamp duty revenues meant there were no new state government handouts — or new taxes — for property buyers.
But NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said since last year’s budget 30,000 first-time buyers had received stamp duty concessions and exemptions.
First-home buyers “had surged into the market, all saving tens of thousands of dollars” and now represented about 25 per cent of all buyers under $800,000 in the past year — up from 7 per cent the previous year.
Mr Perrottet said overall stamp duty relief was not on the table “at the expense of getting first-home buyers into the market … which was a good thing”.
But Treasury anticipates an escalating slowdown in sales activity with 183,000 sales expected this year, down from 210,000 sales in the past year.
However the drop in NSW stamp duty revenues was $960 million less than expected at $10.4 billion this financial year, down from the $11.46 billion forecast. The overall stamp duty revenue will be $5.5 billion lower over the three years to 2020-21.
Glebe couple Tim Lockwood and Anastasia Englebrecht are hoping prices don’t rise too much when they look to buy a home in three to five years’ time.
Mr Lockwood, a communications sales manager, already owns a Camperdown apartment he bought before stamp duty concessions were introduced and believes the Budget should have done more to cut stamp duty now.
Mr Lockwood said they would either buy a bigger apartment, or a house in Western Sydney. “Where we buy will depend on what the market is doing at that point.”
LOCAL GRANTS: Prepare for some local change
COMMUNITY groups like the Scouts are set to benefit from a funding jamboree thanks to a new sovereign wealth fund.
With $3 billion initial funding, the NSW Generations Fund will supply community grants for
local projects, voted on by community members.
Ermington Joey Scout leader Sandra Knox, 54, says the money would help reduce costs and keep activities affordable for parents.
“The (fund) money would help to get us the equipment we need to be able to take kids on expeditions involving hiking gear, caving and canyoning gear,” Ms Knox said. “It would help us to fund the activities we provide at a cost effective rate for people … (because) it’s about making it affordable for parents.”
Ms Knox, 54, has been a Scout Leader since 2004 and said the organisation teaches children crucial skills to transition into adulthood such as resilience, leadership and teamwork.
“It provides kids with opportunities they don’t get anywhere else — they get to experience the outdoors and they have experiences outside their computer games away from digital influences,” she said.
HEALTH BUDGET: Hospital gets cash injection
LIVERPOOL Hospital is the major winner in a record health spend in this year’s state budget with a cash splash to deliver a new cancer research and treatment centre to the boom western Sydney hub.
The overhaul of Liverpool Hospital is expected to cost $740 million with the project to be completed in 2026.
Yesterday’s budget set aside $3.5 million for planning to immediately get under way. The new precinct will expand the hospital’s neonatal intensive care, maternity, day surgery and radiology capacity.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the project had the potential to double the number of jobs in the health and education sectors to about 30,000 by 2036 — almost 25 per cent of the local workforce.
The health budget received an injection of $2.3 billion for 2018-19 to bring the total for the next four years to a record-breaking $8 billion and deliver cash for 40 new, upgraded or redeveloped hospitals.
This includes renovations of birth suites and theatres at St George Hospital and work beginning at Griffith Base Hospital to increase inpatient and critical care services.
The budget also funds an extra 300 doctors, 950 nurses and midwives for 2018-19 and about 750 paramedics and call staff which will be employed over the coming four years.
SCHOOL SUCCESS: Aboriginal aid for kids
MORE Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will be encouraged to stay in school with an extra 1000 student placements funded at one of the country’s leading organisations to advance the lives of indigenous youths.
The Clontarf Foundation program, which mentors 6500 children nationwide, encourages young boys and men to further their education by harnessing their passion for sport.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said his budget provided $3.75 million for an additional 1000 students to be part of the Clontarf success story.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Locals fear concrete port
INNER west residents in exclusive harbour-front enclaves already complaining about potential noise and dust issues from construction zones around Balmain and White Bay are now facing the grim reality of a new terminal port at Glebe Island to handle concrete for new infrastructure projects.
The city’s massive roads and rail build, including the WestConnex and a second harbour tunnel, is so huge the State Government will construct the special port off Rozelle just to ship in all the concrete, budget papers reveal.
Inner west residents are already furious about possible noise and dust from construction zones around the now-gentrified working class suburbs of Balmain and White Bay to build the $14 billion WestConnex project and the Western Harbour tollway.
Many more residents who have bought into new developments at nearby Pyrmont aren’t happy with further plans to turn the harbour back into a working zone.
“Many just don’t want heavy industry close to residential areas, but I remember 10 years ago many large ships using Glebe Island,” Pyrmont Action Group’s Elizabeth Elenius said.
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said while people living near Glebe Island knew they lived in a working harbour, they held concerns about the operation of a 24-hour port.
“This will have a continuing impact on residents in the most densely populated area of Australia,” he said.
EDUCATION: Schools power up to beat the heat
MILLIONS of dollars will have to be spent upgrading school power grids before classrooms can get airconditioning under the $500 million program to keep thousands of pupils and teachers cool.
The government faces a challenge of huge complexity in rolling out its airconditioning program because the electricity supply infrastructure in many schools is too weak to handle the extra load.
It is understood the cost of upgrading some schools’ power systems over the next five years to cope with the extra demand could be as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The airconditioning program for libraries and classrooms in 1000 public schools is expected to start late this year but the full list of those that will be eligible has yet to be decided.
ROADS: Revving up motorways
ROADS Minister Melinda Pavey claims the cash spent on roads in the budget would boost traffic flows on the M4 from Parramatta to the Blue Mountains, with $334 million in upgrades to major arterial routes such as King Georges Road, Henry Lawson Drive and Heathcote Road.
The other major road projects included $439 million for upgrades for key routes from Liverpool, Penrith and Campbelltown to get to the new Western Sydney Airport, $2.6 billion for the F6 extension to Kogarah, $600 million in road safety such as wire barriers on the Princes Highway, and $75 million for road upgrades around Sydney airport.
Groom among two fighting for life as mini bus rolls in horror wedding crash
A mini bus carrying six people has crashed and reportedly rolled about 150 metres down an embankment while on the way to a wedding in the Hunter Valley.
Boozy, ‘dishevelled’ childcare manager busted
A childcare manager found in his car with his pants unzipped and smelling of alcohol, made an “uncharacteristic decision” when he decided to get behind the wheel four times the legal alcohol limit.