NSW election: Aspiring premiers go to water over cost of living

Labor leader Chris Minns warns households it’s impossible for the government to address soaring grocery prices, as the leaders met in the penultimate debate of the campaign.

Premier Dominic Perrottet listens to Labor leader Chris Minns during the NSW leaders debate in Sydney on Wednesday. Picture: Toby Zerna / NCA NewsWire

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has warned households it’s impossible for the state government to address soaring grocery prices, as the leaders clashed in the penultimate debate of the NSW election campaign.

With 10 days until the March 25 election and the polls tightening, Mr Minns and Premier Dom­inic Perrottet faced off in a Nine Network televised debate, with privatisation, debt and cost of living at the fulcrum of the contest between the two leaders.

As he rejected the idea that the Coalition’s proposed supply chain commissioner would do anything to drive down grocery prices, Mr Minns offered a frank assessment about what either side of government could do to help households suffering supermarket inflationary pressures.

“The Premier knows the NSW government has no responsibility for grocery prices in this state. And if he had such a great idea to reduce the amount of money a family pays on their grocery bills, why wouldn’t the government have done it at some point over the last 12 years?

“We’ve released our policies, I’m being honest with the people.”

Pressed on whether he would be able to address the checkout pain hitting families, Mr Minns said: “I can’t do that, neither can the NSW government.”

Mr Minns has previously flagged his energy policies would take “six to seven years” to put downward pressure on prices.

With both sides ruling out further privatisation, Mr Minns said Labor would not exceed the $187bn gross debt already baked into the budget over forward estimates by the NSW government.

Independent economist Saul Eslake said he could not foresee how either party would finance any expenditure increases without incurring more debt, but noted NSW’s fiscal position remained manageable, even if interest repayments represented 5.75 per cent of total public sector revenue.

“NSW is in a weaker financial position than it has been for quite a long time, but it’s in a stronger fin­ancial position than a majority of the other states,” he said.

While Mr Perrottet has so far ruled out privatising any further government assets, he has yet to detail how the Coalition will fund a smorgasbord of infrastructure projects – including extending Warragamba Dam and the Beaches link – claimed to represent about $50bn of unbudgeted costs.

As he accused Labor of spreading “lies” about his plans to privatise Sydney Water, Mr Perrottet was confronted with claims he backflipped on previous promises to rule out asset recycling, with the Labor leader accusing him of disingenuously making the same pledge ahead of the 2019 election.

“When you consider just days before the last election, the Premier was asked, Are you going to privatise the rest of WestConnex?,” Mr Minns said.

“And he said, I’ve got no plans to do it. I’ve got no plans to do it. Well, does that sound familiar? He’s going into the next election on the 25th of March with exactly the same rhetoric.”

Mr Perrottet rejected the claims, accusing Labor of proliferating false claims to distract from their lack of policies. “We’ve made it very clear. We are not selling Sydney Water. This is a Labor lie. … We’ve completely ruled it out.”