NSW election: Labor to tax luxury cars, yachts for $2.8b nurse plan
Owners of luxury boats and cars will be slugged with a new wealth tax to fund more midwives and nurses in public hospitals, if Labor is elected next month.
NSW
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Owners of luxury boats and cars will be slugged with a new wealth tax to fund more midwives and nurses in public hospitals, if Labor is elected next month.
But ALP leader Michael Daley admitted his plan to hire 5500 extra midwives and nurses would cost about $500 million over four years — way more than the $240 million over three years that the cash grab would raise.
Shadow Treasurer Ryan Park insisted the tax on luxury yachts and cars would go “very close” to covering the cost of the extra nurses despite the $260 million shortfall.
“This is a modest amount for those in the community who can afford to cruise around in a luxury yacht or drive a Maserati. They’re going to be asked to pay a little bit more to have a world class health system,” Mr Park said.
Labor promised the new staff would bolster emergency, maternity, medical and surgical and paediatric services. The ratios range from one nurse for every three patients in post-natal wards to every seven patients in medical and surgical wards.
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Under the plan, anyone who buys a yacht worth $200,000 will pay a duty of $7600 and $9 for every $100 above $200,000. This will rise to $12 for every $100 over $300,000.
Labor claims three per cent of boaters would be affected by the change.
Car owners would face extra stamp duty, too. The current duty of $3 for every $100 over $45,000 would rise to $5 per $100.
And a new duty would apply to luxury vehicles bought for $100,000 or more. Labor would slug owners an extra $7 per $100 over $100,000, rising to $9 for every $100 over $150,000.
Mr Daley said it was “fair” that the “top end of town” pay more.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned mandating ratios risked ward closures in rural areas. “Labor’s new policy is un-costed, untested and undercooked, and will risk the closure of hospital wards across the state.”
Australian Sailing president Matt Allen slammed the Labor proposal as unfair and said it would smash NSW’s boat-making industry.
“People will just take their yachts, their people and employment opportunities and go elsewhere.”.
The Boating Industry Association said it was false for Labor to assume all luxury boat owners are rich.
“Many boats are owned by a number of owners as shares and as such the perception that this is a tax on the wealthy is untrue,” a spokesman said. “The proposed tax will hurt hard- working families who enjoy boating and the many small businesses and their employees who service them.”
Coalition to build 750km extension of wild canine barrier
Exclusive by Rose Brennan
Drought-hit farmers have been promised a massive extension to the state’s wild dog fence to protect their livestock and shore up the Coalition’s election chances in the bush.
The length of the fence in western NSW will be more than doubled by 750km along the Queensland and South Australian borders if the Berejiklian government is returned to power.
The huge project will cost $37.5 million, with the fence stretching an extra 420km east adjacent to Mungindi in the north and an additional 322km to near the Murray River at the other end.
It is designed to keep out packs of wild dogs that attack livestock and cost the state $22 million every year.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro is spearheading the project with the Nationals at serious risk of losing the western NSW seat of Barwon — an electorate the size of Germany which would benefit most from the fence — to the Shooters and Fishers Party or Labor.
Government modelling reveals that the longer fence could boost survival of young livestock by up to 50 per cent in the far west and increase “weaning rates” in sheep, cattle and goats by at least five per cent.
“Wild dogs are causing NSW farmers and their communities significant emotional stress and anxiety, putting in danger the future of their livestock and farms,” Mr Barilaro said.
“With prolonged drought conditions already impacting on farming businesses, it’s never been more important to protect our farmers from the threat of pests.”
Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair said the fence would not only help farmers but protect native animals from murderous wild dogs and boost border defence against “biosecurity threats”.
NSW Nationals Candidate for Barwon Andrew Schier said wild dogs were a big issue in the electorate he hoped to win.
“I know this has been a huge issue for landholders across the Barwon electorate,” Mr Schier said.
The Nationals currently hold the seat by a healthy margin of 12.9 per cent but sitting MP Kevin Humphries is quitting and local issues are eroding the party’s popularity in the seat which is under threat.
Lachlan Gall, 49, owns a cattle station about 120km northeast of Broken Hill and has lost $6000 worth of stock to wild dogs over the past four years. On top of that, he’s also invested a significant amount of time and money in baiting and tracking the dogs which says “have a habit of killing for sport”.
“If I come across one dead goat and follow the tracks, invariably on some occasions there’s a number of dead goats strung out in a line,” said Mr Gall,
“We’ve lost around 10 sheep and over 100 goats.”
Despite this, Mr Gall considers himself “very lucky” not to have lost more stock.
“There are properties in the far west near the end of the existing wild dog fence that are having far more trouble with wild dogs coming in around the end of the fence than we’re having here,” he said.
“Those properties near the end of the existing fences are on the frontline of the war against wild dogs in NSW.”
Mr Gall said the new fence would put an end to wild dogs in South Australia moving into southwestern NSW below the southern end of the existing fence.
“It will also stop dogs moving around the eastern end of the existing fence on the Queensland border in the north west of NSW,” he said.
Letter of the law in poll fight
By Danielle Le Messurier
Labor is using letters it claims were written by local residents in the marginal seat of Port Stephens as key campaign material without party branding or authorisation.
The letters, which urge people to vote for incumbent Kate Washington, are instead authorised by the individuals who wrote them despite being compiled and distributed by the MP’s office. While not illegal, the tactics are a sign of the sophisticated techniques Labor will adopt throughout the campaign. The party is concerned about losing Port Stephens, which Ms Washington holds on a slim margin of 4.7 per cent.
One local resident said the letters were inappropriate.
“Everyone in my street is extremely angry about this. We don’t like being treated like fools into thinking this is a genuine letter from a ‘neighbour’,” the resident said.
Hospital fix is working
The hospital maintenance backlog in NSW has been whittled down to $79 million, after hitting a staggering $323 million just four years ago.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was proud to have slashed the maintenance caseload — which includes issues such as broken air-conditioners, roof leaks and upgrading CCTV — by 76 per cent.
“Under Labor for 16 years the economy was so stuffed that they just didn’t do most of the maintenance that is necessary to hospitals. We had to pick up a massive back hole and work our way through it,” he said. There is a now a triage system that prioritises maintenance works.
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