OPINION: NSW Budget forecast

OPINION: NSW Budget forecast

Black hole. Noun – An area of space-time with a gravitational field so intense that its escape velocity is equal to or exceeds the speed of light.
Or, as the new State Government would have us believe, the New South Wales treasury.

The insatiable black hole that is the NSW treasury is to be offered sacrifices ranging from public service wages and positions to community
development programs and local government initiatives as part of the upcoming budget. Despite the self-reported $5.2 billion deficit and waist clinching, purse tightening rhetoric, the Premier has amazingly found enough change in the coffers to purchase enough federal land in the south-west for 3000 template houses and a rail line. This begs the question as to what future, if any, will development investment in the inner city, east and west have with this government.

Understandably, funding allocation in any budget should be about priority and infrastructure issues in Sydney’s outer suburbs are well documented. This isn’t to say however that the immediate suburbs surrounding Sydney aren’t faced with similar problems, nor is it to say available funding impedes the government’s ability to invest in fixing them.

In spite of Sydney’s ailing road networks, the State Government refuses to realise the importance of inner suburban bike lane proposals, and will instead invest millions in wider superhighways. In spite of Sydney becoming a cultural wastelands, they refuse to invest our community based cultural and artistic programs, and will instead build megalithic ‘art centres’ in areas where they are under utilised. In spite of our local governments begging for the basic funding to furnish our parks and clean the streets we walk, they will instead allow them to crumble and fall into disrepair.

This is of course all only speculation, however if present investment is any indication of the upcoming budget, the future of the inner city and its communities are in jeopardy. Unions NSW’s Mark Lennon revealed independent treasury modeling last week that indicated our state’s financial situation is far more positive than the government would have us believe, a view supported by a number of independent economists and our AAA credit rating.

If the government is serious about governing for all NSW residents, and not just those in electorates that voted for them, it has to ditch the rhetoric before it disappears up its own black hole.

By Ryan Gleeson

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