Labor has lost track of almost $2.6 billion dollars after bungling its Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) costings, promising to fund billions in commitments from WestInvest and Restart without cancelling any currently allocated projects.
Labor has flagged taking $3.8 billion from WestInvest by raiding from the state government allocation despite the total for the government round only totalling $2.9 billion.
The NSW government round is already allocated to 27 announced projects, which Labor will cancel, including air conditioning in 84 schools, a new mega parkland at Fernhill Estate, road upgrades at Henry Lawson Drive, Richmond Road, Elizabeth Drive and Pitt Town bypass, health hubs in Liverpool and Glenfield, a PCYC flagship youth hub in Parramatta and school upgrades at Leppington Public, Austral Public, Rouse Hill High and Schofields Public.
To make up the nearly $982 million shortfall, Labor would have to borrow more money, deepening the existing Labor wages budget black hole of $8.6 billion, or cancel even more projects in the community or local government rounds of WestInvest.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean said opposition treasury spokesman Daniel Mookhey, a former union official, could not be trusted with the NSW Budget.
“This is economic amateur hour from Labor. They are promising things they clearly have no intention of delivering, or worse, they have simply no idea what they will or won’t be able to fund in the community,” Mr Kean said.
“If the people of NSW needed proof that Labor cannot run the Budget – let alone our $770 billion economy – then the PBO statement makes it clear that Labor cannot be trusted to deliver what communities have worked hard to secure, let alone track and fund their own promises.
“WestInvest is already fully allocated and announced, with 231 transformational projects across 15 council areas fully funded and progressing.”
Mr Kean said local community groups, councils and agencies have begun preparing and delivering everything from local pools to preschools, all of which have been independently assessed by the WestInvest Steering Committee.
“Labor has seen these local projects as a sitting duck and staged the biggest cash-grab of the election, using $3.8 billion in funds set aside for western Sydney communities as their election slush-fund,” Mr Kean said.
“Every community in Western Sydney deserves to know what local projects they will drain of resources and cut from the program to throw at their candidates and pet projects.
“Labor has then gone on to claim that they won’t touch the local government or community rounds. If that is the case, then they will need to top up WestInvest by almost $1 billion to cover the shortfall for their $3.8 billion WestInvest raid.
“Clearly they will have to borrow money to top up the fund or they will have to cut community and council projects from WestInvest.
“Once again, they need to come clean with the public – will they simply lie now and cut later, or lie now and borrow later?”
Labor has also double-dipped into the regional funding source, Restart, claiming projects funded from the reservation have nil impact when in fact they will appear on the balance sheet.
“Restart is a not a free bucket of cash. They have siphoned $1.6 billion out of Restart and claimed it will have no financial impact, but every funding decision made against Restart must be accounted for in the budget,” Mr Kean said.
“This is yet more unfunded commitments from Labor to add to their unfunded wages blow-out and billions in undercooked commitments for health, firefighters and education.”