The issues defining this election
3 MPs and 1 high-profile candidate answered our questions about where they stand on the major issues.
Liberal Treasurer Matt Kean, Labor Shadow Minister Greg Warren, Greens MP Jenny Leong and Lane Cove independent candidate Victoria Davidson answered our questions on where they stand on the major issues.
Our full conversations are available at these links: Greg Warren, Jenny Leong and Victoria Davidson. Matt Kean provided written responses.
Climate crisis
Matt Kean: In 2016, NSW was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 just as the Paris Agreement was coming into force.
Since then, we’ve set targets of 50% emissions reduction by 2030 and 70% by 2035 and detailed modelling confirms we’re on track to meet those.
Our Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap is the nation’s most comprehensive renewable energy policy, a plan to replace our retiring coal-fired power stations with five renewable energy zones across the state that will deliver some of the cheapest, cleanest and most reliable electricity anywhere in the world.
Our Electric Vehicle Strategy, recognised by the Electric Vehicle Council as “Australia’s best electric vehicle policy”, sets out a pathway to propel electric vehicles to 52% of new car sales in NSW by 2030–31.
In the next term of Government, the Liberals and Nationals will focus on accelerating the rollout of the Roadmap with our newly announced $1.5 billion Clean Energy Superpower Fund. The Fund will help us bring forward the delivery of transmission infrastructure, renewable energy storage like pumped hydro and grid batteries as well as local energy upgrades like community batteries.
Greg Warren: We want to have a more progressive and proactive approach to climate change which I think is directly relatable to energy prices. Broadly, the privatisation of our energy assets is something that I think we’re all feeling the pinch now from.
We’ve announced a whole raft of things from rebates and then financial support, and the NSW Energy Security Corporation to bring all of that together.
How do we invest into the new technologies of the future? What can we do to restrict or bring down energy prices for local families and businesses whilst in the interim providing them with financial support is something so important?
I think the corporation itself and why it’s such a good thing is because we hear a lot of conversations and we all believe in it and we all say ‘yeah that’s great’, but how do we do it?
I believe our establishment of that corporation will provide us with the mechanisms to do that.
Jenny Leong: You do not have to look very far into our communities to see the devastating impacts of both the climate emergency and the housing crisis.
In the communities in the Northern Rivers, they saw devastating floods as a result of extreme weather events caused by climate change. And at the same time now, they are seeing a housing crisis because of complete failure for the government to step in and deliver the support that is needed.
The Greens want to see an end to coal and gas in New South Wales by 2030 and part of our expectations on the NSW Labor Party is to get to that point. We need to see a commitment out of them that they will not approve any new coal or gas mines in the new parliament.
The climate emergency is here and it is real and we know that the big polluters are profiting out of causing that climate emergency. We need to step up and stop it or we are going to see a real challenge for the future generations, but also for the current generation that is currently suffering as a result of the failure to stand up to the corporate coal and gas giants.
Victoria Davidson: We need to legislate emissions reductions targets, that is the first thing we need to do, and we need to have accountability and transparency in the reporting of those. It is very easy to set some targets, but you have to make those meaningful.
We need a whole-of-government approach to climate change. Every decision that government makes has to take climate change into account. Planning is a really big part of this and public transport is a huge part of this.
Efficient and green public transport is a very important part of us meeting our emissions reductions target and becoming a green economy. We have got to address the hard-to-abate sectors and we have to look at regions that are right now in fossil-fuel industries and help them transition.
This is about a fair and equitable transition for them and for the whole state. No one should be left doing heavy lifting here. What concerns me is with the lack of planning that we have and a lack of strategic overview that things get left almost to the last minute.
We can see this coming. We know this is coming and these coal-dependent regions know this is coming. Of course, they are scared because what are they going to have employ them?
We cannot bury our heads in the sand. We have to take a proactive approach and help people along the way.
Nature and biodiversity
Jenny Leong: One of the things that is very clear is this current Liberal–Nationals state government is very good about talking big on the environment, but what they are doing in practice is a completely different thing.
What we see is the continued destruction of our old-growth native forests in New South Wales. We see the destruction of our flora and fauna and we see native species facing higher rates of extinction, all under the watch of the Liberal–Nationals government.
Matt Kean might like to talk up big his environmental and green credentials, but he is simply doing that because he knows that in the northern area of Sydney, where his seat and Liberal seats are threatened, that is what he thinks he needs to do to be able to deliver seats for his party.
He does not actually care about the environment because nobody who cares about the environment would allow the devastation and destruction that currently goes on across this state when it comes to our native forests, when it comes to our native flora and fauna and the extinction species crisis that we currently face.
Victoria Davidson: There has been a significant increase in land clearing — 15,000 hectares — it has tripled since they changed the biodiversity laws in 2016.
The offset scheme is not fit for purpose. It is an accounting scheme. How do you protect biodiversity with merely an accounting tool? You cannot account for endemic species and 96% of offsets do not have something to offset against. So, 96% of credit — what a developer takes — is in inadequate supply and demand.
The system has failed and that has been acknowledged by a parliamentary inquiry. This is really significant, the fact that we are going to see the koala possibly extinct by 2050. This government does have a green sheen to it, but it is very veneer.
Cost of living
Matt Kean: We have a three-pronged strategy to address the rising inflation that is increasing the cost of living for households across NSW.
The first part of the strategy is delivering comprehensive cost of living relief to support the people of NSW overcome the pressure on their household budgets. Our Government is rolling out a $7.2 billion cost of living program to do just that.
It includes a policy giving drivers up to $750 dollars in toll relief, Back to School vouchers to support families with school-age children, and a $250 electricity rebate that every NSW household can unlock by simply shopping around for a better energy deal that could help save them up to $400 more a year.
The second part of the strategy is to use the budget responsibly, to ensure Government fiscal policy doesn’t stoke inflation. That is why this Government has made tough but sensible decisions to return our budget to surplus by 2024–25, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and record flooding.
Finally, we know the only lasting way to bust inflation and boost real wages is to invest in growing the productive capacity of our economy. That is why we are delivering long-term productivity enhancing reforms like our Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund, our universal pre-kindergarten policy and our First Home Buyer Choice expansion.
Greg Warren: I think our stamp duty position is something so important.
We’re at a stage now where people are working out how they can afford their groceries, their fuel, how they get to and from work.
I think the most important thing is having that understanding as to the seriousness of the issues, how it’s affecting people’s livelihoods, their lifestyle, their families, that certainty and security for the future, but whilst also having some sensible, pragmatic and productive positions in place that provide the outcomes.
Stamp duty is a huge cost to many families and would make a difference as well. Boosting the rental supply out in our regions and around housing supply, particularly in the west and the southwest, has been somewhat limited. We all want to live in a house, whether we rent it or buy it. That’s what we all want to do.
Fuel prices are going up, energy is going up. We’ve got that package we talked about before in terms of energy supply. But getting the housing market, whether it’s for purchases or renting, is something that it has to be addressed. That’s why we put some sensible provisions in place with those announcements.
But that’s only the first step. We understand that we can do and say that now we’re leading into the election, if we’re elected, we can do that. But it’s not going to be something that’s fixed straight away overnight. It’s going to be something that we have to give the focus and attention it needs and deserves, and that will be an ongoing process.
Jenny Leong: The cost of living crisis is something that everybody talks about. The reality is you don’t have a cost of living.
It is the cost of your rent, it is the cost of the energy bills, it is the cost of food, it is the cost of transport.
So, you don’t solve the cost of living crisis. What you actually do is address the things that are costing too much money and hurting people’s hip pockets. What does that look like?
Well, the Greens have a plan to see fully-funded and high-quality free public transport for people across NSW.
We also want to see rents immediately frozen and then establishing an independent body to put in rent controls in NSW. In addition to that, we want to bring energy production and energy provision back into public hands.
And by doing that, what we will see is the removal of the profit motive, where currently private energy companies are profiting from the need and desire for people to be able to access energy at an affordable rate.
Victoria Davidson: Rising energy prices are causing this, and it is easy to say that if we could have moved to renewables quicker, but we have missed some opportunities. We need to move to renewables as quickly as possible and it will permanently lower our power bills. We need to stop coal and gas. It is old technology and we do not need more supply. It is just a complete diversion.
I also think that this idea of one-off vouchers is inflationary and they are band-aid. People want to see long-term structural reform and a government needs to have the courage to take that step.
Housing affordability
Matt Kean: A key focus of a re-elected Liberal and Nationals Government will be rolling out our Housing Strategy, announced in the 2022–23 Budget. As part of that Strategy, we set aside almost $500 million to unlock and accelerate the delivery of hundreds of thousands of new homes across the state.
We’re funding key local infrastructure projects to unlock new development because we know that one of the biggest constraints on new housing supply is a lack of supporting infrastructure like water, roads, sewers and parks. We also invested in boosting the State planning system to get development applications processed faster, and to rezone key growth precincts to make more land development-ready for new supply.
One of the key differences between Labor and the Liberals and Nationals is that we understand that you can’t have a good housing policy without a great transport infrastructure policy. When areas are well serviced with modern road and rail links, they become places that more people want to call home. That’s why this government has been an infrastructure government, and why in the next term of government we will continue to focus on delivering world class metro and light rail networks and transformative road projects.
Greg Warren: There had been an imbalance in the past which has seen that– we saw the 70–30 mix with social and public housing.
When they when they sent the bulldozers into Airds and Claymore and Ambervale and those other areas, that displaced so many families, it wasn’t just a matter of rebuilding these homes or anything.
We lost a whole heap of them. But then a lot of it just got sold off to the private sector, which they’re profiting from. We believe getting those profits and investing back into social housing and the housing market is the key forward.
But again, it’s been twelve years of this happening. It’s not a short road to get back to that rebalance, but having that balance where we’re seeing investment back in social housing will directly assist affordability. But in reality, after you’ve had twelve years of it, getting it fixed overnight will be a challenge. But what we are committed to do overnight is give it our priority attention.
Jenny Leong: First and foremost, we need to deal with the rental crisis.
The rent is just too damn high and so the Greens are saying we want an immediate freeze on rents and we want to take the profit motive out of investment properties.
First and foremost, we need to see that homes are places that people live, not ways for people to make money off the speculative property market.
Secondly, we need to invest in more public, social and affordable housing. We need to ensure that the state recognises that investing in public housing is as an essential service, as investing in our hospitals and investing in our public schools. We wouldn’t expect our public schools to return a profit if we wanted to build another public school.
And yet, when it comes to public housing, the state government expects selling off public land to make money from developers in the argument that they can then use that money to build other public housing.
It doesn’t work. It has failed miserably, and the Greens are committed to a massive investment in funds so that we can see more delivery of social, public and affordable housing.
Victoria Davidson: It is a really big problem. Overall, we need to have a difficult and mature conversation about housing in New South Wales, especially in Sydney. It is a hard conversation to have because people who have houses have quite an entrenched position.
There needs to be a lot better thinking around re-zoning in the CBD, we could have something more akin to Tokyo and New York. We do have some residential property in the city, but it is very exclusive. It is all very high-level or student accommodation. So, there are some creative and innovative ways that we could solve our housing crisis.
Bulldozing tracks of land and putting up houses that are not climate-protective and are not climate-resilient in an area that does not have adequate infrastructure is not the way we can get out of this housing problem.
We have to be more thoughtful, listen to different voices and engage with experts, not just developers.
Gambling reform
Matt Kean: Supporting victims of gambling addiction and stamping out organised crime should not be partisan issues.
We have all the evidence we need on cashless gaming. This policy was the key recommendation of the NSW Crime Commission’s report into money laundering in electronic gaming machines. We know that it prevents organised crime figures using our pubs and clubs to launder dirty money and we know that it prevents the kind of gambling addiction that tears families apart. It’s time to get it done.
Greg Warren: We acknowledge it, it is a problem, we can’t ignore it, we have to do something about it, but we think we have to do it sensibly as well.
Having the trial of the card is absolutely vital. The reason is we have to find out if it works or it doesn’t work. It may not work. So if you roll it out, say, no, this is what we’re doing and it doesn’t work– very hard, it may have an adverse effect, very hard to rewind.
It not only may not have an adverse effect, it may have a negative effect as well. So taking a more sensible approach is the position that we’ve taken a ban on all external gaming related signage I think is a positive. Harm- minimisation programs through a 100 million-dollar fund. The introduction of responsible gaming officers is another thing we’ve said, and of course expanded the mandatory gaming cashless gaming trial introduces cash input limits as well.
So, we think they’re sensible steps to see what works and what doesn’t work. We are committed to addressing this issue, which does have a very serious effect in so many ways on the livelihoods of local families, workers and those who do have a gambling addiction.
It’s broader than just pokies. I think there is a far broader conversation needed. That’s why we’re taking a sensible step to make sure measures we put in place can be tested. And when I say tested, what works, what doesn’t work, and then we can implement what does work and then not implement what doesn’t work. So we don’t have an adverse effect on industry, but whilst also providing problem gamblers and those with gambling addictions, with the support that they need.
Jenny Leong: It’s very clear, and I say this very clearly to Chris Minns, that he needs to step up and recognise that the only reason Clubs NSW and the gambling industry hold power over our democracy is because he is refusing to get on board with a multipartisan approach to implementing the recommendations to stop money laundering and the dangers and harms created by gambling as a result of pokies.
Chris Minns is failing to do that currently. The Labor Party are morally bankrupt when it comes to the cashless gambling card. The Greens are urging him to listen to the unions, to listen to the people in our community that have experienced the harm caused by pokies, and to say that he will finally grow a backbone, stand up to Clubs NSW and commit to joining the rest of us in implementing a cashless gambling card in New South Wales.
What we see is there is actually the potential to establish multipartisan support for the implementation of those recommendations this election.
The one holdout at the moment is Chris Minns. And the question has to be asked, is that because still the dark days of NSW Labor, when they were caught up in corruption and scandal, are still infecting the current supposed ‘fresh start’ that we’re hearing from Minns?
Victoria Davidson: I support an ID-linked mandatory cashless gaming card with loss limits. All of those parts are important, not just the money laundering. It is about harm reduction and harm minimisation. The ID-linked means that if you have gone over your loss limit, you can’t use a machine again that day. People right now can sit there and feed cash into two machines they are sitting next to, with no limit.
It says so much about our society that we are allowing this to occur, that we call it problem gambling, and it is on the person. They don’t have the problem, the fact is that an entire industry has been set up to create an addiction and keep that person addicted.
I think it’s fantastic that Alex Greenwich raised this at the end of the last year that he would be supporting a cashless gaming card and Perrottet was smart enough to get on board, and he did a great job of wedging Labor. Look where Labor are. They have not been able to move past their really poor policy. I am on it because I have got absolutely nothing to lose and I am very excited that we could get this change.
We all know that the only people this cashless gaming card is going to affect negatively are the gambling industry and criminal gangs.
Anti-protest laws
Jenny Leong: When people in power want to do things in the interests of themselves and not the community, they would prefer to not have to face the reality of the damage they’re causing.
People engage in nonviolent direct action and peaceful protest when they are outraged at the decisions of the state. If the state is doing things that they don’t like, people will come out and mobilise on the street. We’ve seen that with the nurses, we’ve seen it with the teachers, the public sector workers, the transport workers have all taken strike and industrial action over the past years, demanding better pay, better conditions.
We’ve seen the student strikers come out in force, demanding climate action and saying that we want to see no new coal and gas. And we have seen incredible direct actions from Blockade Australia and Extinction Rebellion, blocking traffic, and engaging in nonviolent peaceful protests.
If you’re in a position of power in the state, your preference is that you never see that dissent. I used to work at Amnesty International and I saw the extreme end of when authoritarian regimes crack down on peaceful protest.
It is a complete disgrace that here in NSW that we have seen draconian anti-protest laws passed, and the Greens are absolutely committed to repealing them.
Victoria Davidson: I support the right to peaceful protest — it is an inherent part of our democracy and we need to preserve that. An ideology of the Liberal-Nationals government is for limited government involvement in your life, but we see a government that is very keen to pass some very restrictive laws.
I think that we need some perspective over who really is causing the damage here — is it somebody who is blocking traffic for an hour or so, or is it businesses and multinationals that are making a huge amount of money off our resources and not paying tax and doing their best to greenwash their way out of corporate responsibility?
Other issues
Matt Kean on managing the budget: We know that the best way to run a strong budget is to grow a strong economy. The Liberal Nationals Government has a long-term economic plan to drive growth of the state’s economy, which will underpin a resilient budget and balance sheet and support the delivery of more transformative infrastructure.
The strong position of the State’s finances has been recognised by the experts, with NSW the only state or territory government in the country with two triple-A credit ratings.
It is that record of sound financial management that will allow us to continue to build the metros, the roads, the schools and hospitals that has been the hallmark of this Government.
Greg Warren on privatisation: The assets that have been sold are up in to towards $100 billion. A lot of those were revenue raising assets. What that means is the government has sold off what is public assets: that’s yours, mine, our mates, our families. They’re not the government’s, whoever’s in government, but this government took it upon themselves to go and sell them, to ultimately build projects, invest in infrastructure.
We all want that. We’ve all seen it. But we’ve always invested in resources and infrastructure before all the sell offs. It does directly affect affordability, particularly when you look at energy. I mean, the government’s refusal to say they’ll sell off Sydney Water, I won’t get into the politics of all that.
But the record is clear with the Coalition government.
I philosophically and ideologically am against it, but I’m vehemently politically against it, and, well, it must stop. There are serious economic effects. We know that.
That has been proven time and time again. So my opposition to privatisation has never changed and will never change. And that is the position of Chris Minns and the opposition as well.
Jenny Leong on diversity in parliaments: We’re absolutely heading in the right direction.
The fact that me, as a woman of colour, someone who has a dad who was an international student, who came to this country to study many years ago, to now sit in the NSW Parliament as far as I know, being the first Chinese-Australian woman elected to the lower house in any seat in any jurisdiction in the country is a step forward.
We’re seeing the Labor Party and the Greens put up over 50% of our candidates this election being women and we’re seeing more diverse parliamentarians elected to our parliament.
But we know there’s still so far to come. The fact that we are still seeing toxic behaviour in our parliaments and in our democracy is something that needs to be stamped out. And until we address the culture in our parliament, we’re not going to change that diversity to a real level.
Victoria Davidson on the vaping problem: I am really concerned about these ‘non-nicotine’ e-cigarettes. There is absolutely nothing to guarantee that they are non-nicotine. When they are tested, over half of them have been found to contain nicotine. We do not even know what levels they are. We are exposing children to one of the most addictive substances in proportions that we do not know, because it comes in under a banner of non-nicotine. It is a massive loophole.
To start with, these are not even TGA approved as nicotine cessation methods. It is completely unregulated. There is no TGA approval around it. There are better proven nicotine cessation programs and methods out there and this somehow snuck in through the back door.
It scares me that we have a generation which has very low rates of uptake of cigarette smoking, but once someone takes up vaping, they have a one in three chance of becoming a cigarette smoker. We know this is incredibly unhealthy and this is dangerous. What are we doing allowing our young people access to something that is causing them permanent damage and possibly a lifetime addiction?
