NSW State Election 2023: Dominic Perrottet, Chris Minns face off in final debate
Moments after the final debate before the NSW election ended, Premier Dominic Perrottet was cornered by two women, who wanted answers on one thing.
Premier Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns made their final bids to the people of NSW days out from the state election on Wednesday night.
Facing off in the Sky News / The Daily Telegraph People’s Forum, the two leaders answered questions from an audience of 100 undecided voters.
But moments after the debate ended, two women who didn’t get the chance to put their question to the Premier cornered the man instead, in search of answers after the brutal and controversial lockdowns that hit only some parts of the state.
After an animated private conversation, Penrith woman Anita told NCA NewsWire she had called on the Premier to announce an “independent commission into the actions of the government during Covid”.
The Local Government Area of Penrith in Sydney’s west was one of the hardest hit by area-specific Covid-19 lockdowns which placed residents under strict 5pm curfews and banned them from leaving their LGAs.
At the time, Gladys Berejiklian’s government was criticised for unfairly targeting people in lower socio-economic pockets of western and southwest Sydney.
For Anita, and her friend Jane who lives in Blacktown (also in the city’s west), the whiplash from the Covid restrictions had not been forgotten.
“The locked us down twice or three times for no reason,” said Anita.
“We are still furious. It’s the fact that they keep talking about inflation. They’re throwing money at us because they virtually caused us to go bankrupt.”
Jane said the lockdowns caused financial and emotional stress.
“By locking us down, people obviously lost their jobs, more people shoplifted, and broke into cars and there was more crime,” she said.
HUGE WIN FOR MINNS
Labor leader Chris Minns emerged victorious in Wednesday night’s debate, winning over nearly half of the 100 undecided audience members, compared to 32 who said Premier Dominic Perrottet has secured their vote.
The leaders were grilled on the rising cost of living among other issues by audience members and moderator Sky News Australia Chief News Anchor Kieran Gilbert.
Out of 100 undecided voters, 48 said they had been swayed to vote for the Opposition, 32 chose the Coalition and 20 remained undecided.
CASH SPLASH PROMISES
Cost of living was a major theme of the audience questions, with both leaders grilled on what support they were offering, if elected.
Mr Perrottet said he would drop the cap on public transport costs from $50 a week to $40 a week, and a $250 reduction on “every energy bill in NSW”.
The Labor leader reminded voters of his promised $60 tolls cost cap, stamp duty threshold increase and energy rebate to small businesses – but said it was his party’s commitment to stopping the sell off of public assets that would make the biggest difference.
“I think the best thing we can do for the long term future of cost of living in New South Wales is stop the madness of privatisation,” he said.
MINNS CLAPPED ON HEALTHCARE
With both leaders invited to ask each other a question, Mr Perrottet asked why Labor’s $250 energy rebate plan wasn’t available to all households while the Coalition’s was.
Mr Minns said he wanted to allow small businesses to also be able to access the rebate.
Mr Minns then asked if the Premier “regretted” his decision to freeze wages for essential workers, like nurses and paramedics.
Mr Perrottet said it was a “difficult” decision, which was required during the pandemic.
“That’s why our state was able to navigate through the year,” he said.
Mr Minns refuted his answer and blamed Mr Perrottet’s decision for an exodus of healthcare workers.
“It was wrong. Now he’s doubled down on it,” he said.
The answer appeared to resonate with the audience, with some clapping.
PREMIER GRILLED IN FIRST MOMENTS
In the first question of Wednesday night’s Sky News / The Daily Telegraph People’s Forum, Mr Perrottet was grilled by a member of the public on privatisation.
Audience member Kim asked the Premier whether he would buy back the state’s assets that had been sold off to private companies.
“You keep selling our assets. Clearly you keep spending money which worries me that you guys don’t know how to budget properly,” Kim asked.
While Mr Perrottet assured the audience the government had no plans to sell any more assets and highlighted the government’s AAA credit rating, the answer was not good enough for Kim.
Unsatisfied with Mr Perrottet’s answer, Kim bought up tolls.
Mr Perrottet defended selling the state’s tollways, like WestConnex, and said the “motorways had made a real difference”.
”WestConnex ensures people can get to work and upon faster, spending more time with their families,” he said.
The Premier was given no help from his adversary, who has spent much of his campaign pointing out the Liberal Party’s poor record on privatisation.
Opposition leader Chris Minns told the crowd tolls were crippling families, especially those who didn’t have access to public transport.
“It’s important to note that the entire M8 could be paid off eight times over, as a result of the revenue coming into the privatised toll company,” he said.
MINNS SLAMMED ON WAGE CAP VOW
The first two questions – on privatisation and NSW’s public healthcare system – have leaned in Labor’s favour.
A maternity ward nurse asked what each leader would do to help the state’s public hospitals, noting she had seen overcrowding in maternity wards and claiming “every woman” to give birth in the last five years had “a horror story”.
Mr Minns’ was reiterated his pledge to scrap the wages cap for public service workers in response.
However, the debate quickly shifted onto the budgetary cost of lifting the cap.
On Monday, the Parliamentary Budgetary Office (PBO) found a 1 per cent increase to the current 3 per cent cap could lead to a $2.6b cost to the state’s budget if the measure could not be offset through other savings as Labor had pledged – something Mr Perrottet was quick to remind the audience of.
“When you have a major budget cost that you can’t claim, that’s going to cost the taxpayers of NSW,” said Mr Perrottet.
”What Chris has done is increase wages for public servants without telling anybody how much this would cost.”
DEBATE BEGINS
Wednesday night’s debate is the final time Mr Perrottet and Mr Minns will go head-to-head before the all-important polling day on March 25.
During the debate, both leaders will answer questions from 100 undecided voters.
Mr Perrottet and Mr Minns both wore dark suits with a white shirt and light blue tie. Before the debate started they spent time shaking hands and meeting the audience.
Mr Minns started his election pitch with a promise to fix the state’s education and hospital systems and scrap the public service wages cap.
Mr Perrottet highlighted the Coalition’s infrastructure achievements and the government’s Kid’s Future Fund.
At the same debate before the 2019 state election, the lacklustre performance of then-Opposition Leader Michael Daley was blamed for Labor’s downfall at the polling booths.
Asked about the Opposition’s education and Tafe funding policies, he stumbled over the figures promised by his party.
Days later, then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian took the Coalition to their third term in government.
Sky News Australia Chief News Anchor Kieran Gilbert will moderate the forum on Wednesday night, in the key marginal seat of Penrith, held by Liberal MP Stuart Ayres and challenged by Labor candidate Karen McKeown.
As of 12pm Wednesday, the NSW Electoral Commission says 638,484 votes have been cast in pre-poll booths, plus 28,788 returned postal votes.
5,521,688 voters are expected to cast their ballots this election.
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