Labor enters arena with its own wrecking ball

It’s curious how Labor, which launched a $50 billion National Broadband Network, is so opposed to improving two stadiums in Sydney. At least the stadiums won’t ­become obsolete, and Labor’s own plan to “invest $500 million to ­create a new cultural institution in western Sydney” hardly smacks of fiscal rectitude.

Today’s NSW election matters not just for sports fans. As growth falters around the country, the state’s public investment boom has helped keep the jobless rate down and the economic growth up. NSW is spending $66bn over the next four years, almost double the level of the second biggest spender, Victoria.

Sure, delays and budget overruns abound — witness the Sydney light rail fiasco — but that’s par for the course in public works. Labor’s track record is hardly edifying, unable in its previous 16-year stint in government to install an electronic ticketing system for the state’s public transport.

With strong population growth, it’s far better to err on the side of too much or too expensive infrastructure than not enough. It’s no surprise with less than a third of the country’s population, NSW contributed half the nation’s economic growth last year, having an unemployment rate of 3.9 per cent, the lowest ever.

On top of canning the stadium rebuilds, the Labor opposition says it would can a western harbour tunnel and Sydney metro southwest extension. And those projects they’d keep would arrive even more slowly, given the inevitable tinkering with specifications and changeover in the upper ranks of the public service.

Even if you believe Labor’s supposed new-found fiscal conservatism, borrowing to build is a good idea; state government borrowing rates are at their lowest level in history.

The NSW government is far from perfect, having squibbed on the fire service levy and local government reform, and abrogated ­itself from the energy debate — a core state responsibility. Fear of the public sector unions has insulated the bloated education and health sectors from scrutiny. And in eight years the state government’s done little to fix its dependence on property stamp duty, a damaging 19th-century tax that traps people in their homes.

Yet Labor’s Michael Daley doesn’t seem inclined to big-picture fiscal or tax reform, his policy suite far more attuned to identity politics and trendy environmentalism: flying the Aboriginal flag on the harbour bridge and signing a “treaty”, banning single-use plastic bags, “supporting women”, creating 10 days of paid domestic violence leave, letting kids travel free on public transport, “saving live music” and animals.

It’s hard for state governments to do big reform, given their ­dependence on federal government grants which come with reams of conditions. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has tried to shift the debate away from spending on health and education, as if dollars spent equated to the quality of outcome. The next step, for whoever wins today, should be an inquiry into how to lift productivity in these two sectors — without spending more money.