The NSW government has ruled out imposing a similar levy on property investors to increase revenue and Mookhey has said Labor would stick to its pre-election promise of no new taxes, instead focusing on cuts to spending.
Mookhey will deliver an economic statement to the Legislative Council next week, in which he will paint a bleak picture of the state’s finances ahead of the full budget three months later.
‘There is a $7 billion budget black hole needing urgent attention ... dealing with it is a key priority of the Minns government.’
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey
The government has undertaken a comprehensive expenditure review and Mookhey has warned that Treasury is going through the budget line by line to “identify waste and get control of the budget mess left to us by the former government”.
He said one of the first steps was to freeze the pay of politicians and senior executives in the public service and the government has also committed to reducing expenditure on consultants, labour hire, government advertising, legal expenses and travel.
“There is a $7 billion budget black hole needing urgent attention,” Mookhey said. “The people of NSW expect no less and dealing with it is a key priority of the Minns government.”
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“Without action on a rash of unfunded programs from the former administration, NSW will face having more than 1000 nurses out of a job, at-risk kids without adequate care, gaping holes in our cybersecurity defences and much more. The list of what we’re discovering just keeps growing.”
He said the “September budget will be major step forward”.
“But we’ve wasted no time already and the comprehensive expenditure review is giving us a line-by-line analysis of what needs to be done,” Mookh ..
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