Mark Speakman
Leader of the Opposition
OPINION PIECE – DAILY TELEGRAPH – PAGE 21
NSW parliament rises for the last time this week, marking 20 months since the Labor government came to power in NSW, aided by the state's union movement. In March 2023, Chris Minns and his team promised the world simultaneously to voters and to the unions who carried them to election victory. The euphoria that accompanied the Labor win has long lost its lustre and Chris Minns and his Labor ministers are now facing the reality of what is required to govern – and the consequences of being beholden to the union movement.
We have unions holding the government hostage – paralysing our public transport network and stranding commuters one week, elective and planned surgeries cancelled the next, while for nearly a year ongoing action from the Electrical Trades Union has delayed critical electrical connections, impacting everything from thousands of homes to billions of dollars of state-significant infrastructure.
What's clear is that the unions which got Labor elected, which control Labor preselections, man booths on polling day and make donations to the ALP, are now running this state. The Labor Party that promised great reform has instead delivered paralysis.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, NSW has lost nearly 26,000 "working days" to industrial action since the Minns government came to power, up-ending the lives of people. NSW has gone from being the "Premier State" to the "Strike State".
Meanwhile, under the Minns Labor government, Sydney's cost of living is spiralling. The overall cost of living in Sydney is 22% higher than Melbourne, 25% higher than Perth, 49% higher than Adelaide, and 41% higher than Darwin. Rent in Sydney is 36% more expensive than Melbourne, 45% higher than Perth, and 49% higher than Adelaide.
Sydney families pay $1000 more in rent each month than in Melbourne. That's $12,000 a year more that Sydney families could be spending on their children, grocery bills, or saving for their future. Housing approvals and commencements in NSW have collapsed to their lowest levels in 12 years, rents have skyrocketed, and families are being priced out of their communities. Hospitals are going backwards, and cost-of-living pressures continue to get worse.
Labor has delivered at least 52 announcements of taskforces, inquiries and reviews, but no meaningful outcomes for the people of NSW. Instead, we have a weak Labor Premier and a small target government which hides behind empty promises.
We've seen this before. Between 1998 and 2011, NSW Labor promised at least five major rail projects – and none of them were delivered. Chris Minns is Bob Carr 2.0 – big talk, no action, and endless disappointment.
He is happy to cut the ribbons for projects delivered by the previous Coalition government, but he can't lead when required.
The constant industrial chaos is a sobering reminder of a Labor government too weak to lead, too afraid to make decisions, and too paralysed to act. After nearly two years of the Minns Labor government, families aren't better off – they're worse off.
