NSW election: Michael Daley is leader with a vague idea but little detail

In the final days of the NSW election campaign, intense scrutiny is focused on the credibility of Labor leader Michael Daley.

NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley in Sydney’s Surry Hills yesterday. Picture: Getty Images

In the final days of the NSW election campaign, intense scrutiny is suddenly focused on the credibility of Labor leader Michael Daley and how a government led by him would manage the nation’s largest state economy.

The sense that NSW Labor’s funding commitments are light on detail, vague, not fully costed or still to be worked out has been demonstrated by Mr Daley’s inability on repeated occasions to provide clear answers.

Stumbles made by the NSW Opposition Leader during a televised debate with Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday night, rated by some as a disaster, deflated Labor insiders.

They also brought into sharp focus the rubbery nature of NSW Labor’s financial offerings.

Under pressure, Mr Daley made an astonishing remark during a gruelling media conference yesterday — the latest of a bad last week after apologising for insensitive comments about Asian immigration. “All you need to know if you’re a voter on Saturday is what’s in it for me?” he said.

Yet voters also might like to know that the state’s economy is in safe hands, and their taxpayer dollars are well spent.

Mr Daley has made the centrepiece of his election pitch a promise to better fund schools and hospitals, redirecting money away from Coalition infrastructure ­projects.

The big-ticket item on education spending, advocated again and again by Mr Daley, is to fin­ance NSW public schools to 100 per cent of the Gonski funding model. When Sky News host David Speers asked Mr Daley to name the dollar difference between current funding and Labor’s promise, Mr Daley could not remember.

He also wildly exaggerated Labor’s funding boost for TAFE.

Mr Daley got into strife again yesterday over Labor’s commitment to stop Ms Berejiklian’s rebuilding of two large Sydney stadiums. He cited support from a Parliamentary Budget Office report saying Labor could force the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust to take out a loan to pay for the less costly option of refurbishing one of them, Allianz Stadium. The other, ANZ Stadium, would remain untouched.

The cost would be “zero” to the taxpayer, Mr Daley insisted. Missing from this bold claim was the PBO’s report taking into account a full rebuild of Allianz, not a partial one. Mr Daley did not know what such a refurbishment would cost, while buck-passing loan repayments to the SCG Trust without being clear how it would afford them. “It’s all in their accounts. Ask them,” Mr Daley said.

It was a similar response on how grand final football games would continue at ANZ Stadium if the venue had 10 years of service left. “That’s a matter for the NRL,” he said.

Asked about the top-five reasons to vote Labor, posted on Instagram by his party yesterday, Mr Daley said there were 100 reasons to vote Labor. The stadium was one — he could not name another in the top five.

Then there was Mr Daley’s creative take on Labor’s plans for ­Coalition infrastructure projects. He plans to terminate or de-fund the Metro Southwest, Metro West, F6 extension, western harbour tunnel and the tunnel to Sydney’s northern beaches suburbs.

Yesterday, Mr Daley said Labor was “not cancelling” them: he was “moving” the funds.

During a Surry Hills gym visit, Mr Daley announced $100 million to “properly compensate” residents and businesses suffering damage and disruption caused by the light rail construction.

More vagueness: the money was to repair damage but the “rules” would be worked out later.

Mr Daley says voters want to know “the big picture”. Much of his remains foggy.