Ideas@TheCentre
The state budget – motorways at 10 paces
State budgets have become somewhat curious affairs in recent times. Apart from the headline items, the public is increasingly disengaged with state budgets and the likely culprit is the unbridled appropriation of state responsibilities by the Commonwealth.
That said, several components of the recent NSW budget should pique your interest. One is the imposition of ‘labour cost reduction targets’ in the NSW public service, equivalent to 10,000 jobs over four years (‘equivalent to’ here means ‘sounds better as’).
While popular, these messages do little to address underlying structural issues in the public service such as the ongoing chaos of endless restructuring, the general lack of employee accountability, and programs that are wasteful or needlessly complex. There are serious issues both with retaining talented candidates and removing underperformers. It’s a shame that dedicated and gifted public servants (and I know many) are let down by inconsistent government priorities, vague objectives, and inadequate tools.
Another area of interest is the continuing government tinkering in the housing market, this time realigning first homeowners’ concessions towards new dwelling construction. Unfortunately, previous evidence suggests that while these changes may affect housing construction in the short term, it’s likely that prices of new homes will ultimately increase to capture the additional grant.
What may be more welcome news for those crying themselves to sleep at night for want of infrastructure spending is the commitment to additional rail links in the northwest and southwest and a new motorway - though it’s not yet clear where the motorway will go. It makes sense for it to go to Sydney’s second airport, but no one knows where that will be either (other than in someone else’s backyard). Maybe call it the NIMBY Expressway and have it connect Marrickville to Badgery’s Creek - just as long as it doesn’t run through my suburb, as I don’t really want the noise.
The premier has committed only minimal spending for the new motorway, continuing a grand tradition of announcing major projects long before agreeing to spend any money. As our federal treasurer recently discovered, this lets you enjoy the benefits of a positive announcement but is easier to cut if lower tax receipts jeopardise your surplus. What a shame that NSW doesn’t have any Joint Strike Fighters to defer – we could have been in surplus already.
Speaking of fighters and roads, a brouhaha is looming over funding for the Pacific Highway upgrades. With the premier declining to commit to a 50/50 funding split with the federal government, he is essentially saying, ‘It’s my way or the highway.’
Let’s hope he is wrong and we can have both.
Simon Cowan is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
