A new platform at Central station built for the Sydney Metro line,which is due to open within months.Credit:Louise Kennerley
This mistake means that the state’s net debt has been incorrectly reported since 2018,and will worsen the government’s already dire financial outlook,which will be outlined when NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey hands down his second budget on June 18.
Former premier Dominic Perrottet was treasurer at the time but Mookhey is not pointing the finger at him,rather labelling the costly mistake as an accounting error that went unnoticed for years.
The pre-election budget update projected that NSW’s net debt would be $118 billion in 2025-26 but accounting for the error,the figure should have been $119 billion.
This budget is shaping up to be bleak for NSW after the carve-up of the GST in the federal budget revealed that the state will receive $1.9 billion less next financial year than previously forecast.
The drop in GST payments is greater than estimated by the NSW government,which had been warning the state would be $1.65 billion worse off in 2024-25,the biggest single-year decline in GST for NSW since the tax was introduced in 2000.
The GST is a crucial income source for state governments and will contribute more than 23 per cent of NSW’s revenue this financial year.
Mookhey has warned that the GST carve-up will cost the NSW budget $11.9 billion over four years,meaning the state will almost certainly lose its prized AAA credit rating.