Michael Daley says ‘a madness has descended on Sydney’ due to congestion and dodgy trains

The man who hopes to be the next premier of NSW says Sydney has gone mad — and he blames Gladys Berejiklian.

Michael Daley, the man who hopes to be the next premier of New South Wales, has described Sydney as a broken city.

The Labor leader has accused the government of failing to keep its promise at the last election to improve daily life in the capital city.

“There’s a madness that’s descended on Sydney,” Mr Daley told news.com.au ahead of Saturday’s poll.

“The promise from (Mike) Baird and (Gladys) Berejiklian four years ago was a simple one — let us sell your electricity assets, and we’ll build productive infrastructure all over the city, and life will be terrific.”

After eight years of a Liberal/Nationals Coalition government, Mr Daley said little had changed — and things had gotten worse.

Michael Daley says the NSW Government has failed to tackle congestion. Picture: John Grainger

Michael Daley says Labor will institute a “cash back” scheme on the M4 toll.

“After eight years now, they’ve scarcely cut the ribbon on a major transport or infrastructure project that they initiated. The city is getting more congested. It’s clogged.

“They’ve now said there’ll be a toll on the WestConnex, on the M4, for 43 years. People of western Sydney didn’t see that one coming.

“What we’ve said is they’ve paid the M4 off once, they shouldn’t have to pay it off twice. We’re having cash back on the M4. If you live in Penrith and that area, it’s a simple proposition. If you want to travel on the M4 for free, vote for us.

“If you want to pay over $2000 a year in tolls, you can stick with the Liberal Party.”

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Michael Daley has attacked Gladys Berejiklian for not doing enough to tackle housing affordability, the rail network and road congestion.

Labor has pledged to immediately invest $3 billion in Sydney’s rail network if it wins government.

“People are saying they can’t get on trains now, they’re late now and we need improvements now. We’ve got $3 billion to pump into the system in Sydney now to make it more efficient,” he said.

Ms Berejiklian’s government is spending billions of dollars on major road projects and has also committed funding to new trains for Sydney.

But on roads, Mr Daley said the government focused only on “long and large multi-lane roads”.

“What people are seeing as the population of Sydney increases is the local journeys, taking their kids to school and the trip down the shop, is taking longer. There’s much more traffic now than there was just a few years ago.”

His proposed solution is what he calls his “pinch-point program” — $1.1 billion for local road network improvements.

“Often, you can make an improvement to a roundabout or a set of traffic lights or a slip lane that gets great efficiencies in local road networks,” Mr Daley said.

“That’s what we’re doing with the pinch-point program. It’s very important, particularly in Sydney’s western suburbs.”

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Michael Daley has also spoken about rapid “inappropriate development” that’s not supported by infrastructure improvements.

He attacked the rapid growth of “inappropriate development that’s sprung up”, particularly in Sydney’s outer suburbs and on the city fringe.

A lack of infrastructure planning meant those new residential hubs were poorly serviced, he said.

Mr Daley said he also wanted to address housing affordability in the city, which he said had become “a very expensive place to live”.

“It’s becoming expensive to live and almost impossible for young people now to buy a house … I’d like to see sufficient housing in Sydney on an affordable basis so people don’t have to leave.”

The troubled light rail project is one of the transport projects Michael Daley says the government has been unable to deliver on time.

Mr Daley has seized on community sentiment about the government’s $1.5 billion stadiums plan, which includes knocking down and rebuilding Allianz Stadium in Moore Park and refurbishing ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park.

He said the money should be redirected to health and education projects and described the Premier’s $730 million project at Allianz as a “waste of taxpayers’ money”.

“There’s a better way to do it,” Mr Daley said.

Labor leader Michael Daley hopes to be the next premier of New South Wales. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“You can do it by making the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust take out a loan so the taxpayer doesn’t have to pay, and we’ll have $730 million to play with.

“You can’t have it all. The Premier says NSW can have it all. She just ignores the fact that finances are finite. No one believes there’s an endless pot of money.

“Governments have one source of funds, and that’s the taxpayer’s money. Each year it’s limited. There’s no magic pudding.

“If you’re spending $1.5 billion over here on stadiums, you cannot spend that on schools and hospitals.”

NSW goes to the polls on March 23.