Perrottet promises grocery bill relief with new office

Luke Costin and Farid Farid | February 23, 2023

Grocery prices can be lowered by getting more truckies and goods on the road quicker, the NSW premier says.

As his opponent flagged offering the International Baccalaureate in public schools, Premier Dominic Perrottet headed to a Coles distribution centre to promise a supply chain commissioner if re-elected on March 25.

The new office would upskill 5000 truckies and get another 2000 licensed for the first time and press ports to clear goods faster.

“This is all about getting produce to port to plate faster – that’s lower fees, lower charges and then ultimately lower prices for families across NSW,” he said on Thursday.

The commissioner would also drive national reform around packaging to cut red tape and create consistency to reduce packaging costs, the government said.

“We want the commissioner to look holistically at the entire supply chain,” Regional Transport Minister Sam Farraway said.

Labor leader Chris Minns said if the premier was serious about lowering supermarket bills, he needed to look at the price of tolls and energy.

“To say on the eve of an election, he’s got some magic way of reducing grocery prices for the consumers in this state, I think is very disingenuous,” he told reporters.

Mr Minns’ key election promise for Thursday was opening public school gates to the International Baccalaureate program, alongside the Higher School Certificate.

Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and Queensland have public schools that offer the internationally recognised qualification.

“This is about making sure that wherever you go to school in this state … we are preparing the next generation of Australians for a diverse and complicated economy, and young children have got the best opportunities to start their life,” leader Chris Minns said.

But Mr Minns conceded the chronic underfunding of public schools and lack of IB-specific money would leave the program out of reach for many schools.

Labor also committed $9 million to regional newspapers, through print ads and grants, while Planning Minister Anthony Roberts green-lit the building of an 850-megawatt super battery near Newcastle.

The battery complex, enough to power a tenth of the grid, will be ready by the time Origin shuts its 2900MW, coal-fired Eraring station in 2025.

Meanwhile, Mr Perrottet dismissed concerns about privatisation after a video emerged of Liberal MP Wendy Tuckerman flagging her support to privatise Sydney Water during a candidates’ forum.

Mr Perrottet said his minister made a “mistake” and he had made it abundantly clear several times there were no plans to sell off more state assets.

The coalition’s infrastructure boom has been partially funded through the sale of more than $70 billion of state assets since 2011.

Elsewhere, a factional dispute over who would claim dumped MP Peter Poulos’ spot on the Liberals’ upper house ticket appears resolved.

The NSW Liberal Party’s state executive on Wednesday night backed its women’s council president, Jacqui Munro, for the No.3 position on the joint Liberal-Nationals upper house ticket.

It practically guarantees her election if she is formally endorsed.

The selection ends Transport Minister David Elliott’s hopes of staying in parliament after his lower house seat of Baulkham Hills was abolished in a redistribution.

The upper house spot became vacant after the party suspended sitting MP Peter Poulos for six months for releasing explicit pictures of a female colleague during a preselection battle.