Every morning Daniel Mookhey is confronted with 14 pairs of glasses – most of which have interchangeable arms. The New South Wales treasurer assesses about 90 sartorial possibilities, before deciding which option to wear that day.
It’s a little like how he approaches his new job. Three weeks into the role, and ahead of his first budget, he is confronted with a housing crisis, concerns over energy and rising costs of living – along with more than $7.1bn in financial blackspots.
From his office, the 40-year-old speaks about how he’s assessing options to address housing issues, investigating how London, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and San Francisco are tackling their own crises and seeing which – or what combination – could work here.
“We are looking at world’s best practice when it comes to the state intervening to build more housing itself and how you can tie that to the construction of transport infrastructure,” he tells Guardian Australia on Wednesday.
While some of those cities have implemented rent freezes and caps, the treasurer rules out such policies, insisting they are not necessarily working.
“The best way in which we can be alleviating rental stress is to build more properties [and] at the same time we’re modernising the laws and rights for renters,” he says.
Mookhey, the son of Indian migrants, says the benefits of having a stable home should not be underestimated. At just five, his father died, leaving his mother widowed in western Sydney.
“The fact that my mum had her house was the difference between us being able to access good schools, good hospitals, and so I care about it a lot,” he says.
“The opportunity for people to have stability and to be able to accumulate independence depends on them having access to safe and affordable housing.”
Like his cabinet colleague Rose Jackson, Mookhey wants to make big plans to expand social housing and thinks a boost to homes for the state’s most in need can be a “byproduct of private housing development”.
The government has promised to set aside 30% of government land for social, affordable and diverse housing.
“That provides potential for a big influx in social housing,” he says.
“We want to show the private sector that you can do this and, as a result, you can construct better neighbourhoods that have far more diversity in them.”
Success to the treasurer looks like creating a state where people can live in a house they can afford, while working a job that pays them a decent wage, near good schools and hospitals.
“The whole point of being treasurer is to make sure that the economy creates justice for people and I’ve never lost sight of that,” he says.
“Fiscal management for fiscal management’s sake isn’t the point.”
However, energy supply and power bills are near the top of the long list of state woes. Last week he met with the prospective buyers of the Eraring power station, slated to close in 2025.
Many in the industry have speculated that the government will ask the coal-fired station to remain open, which is an option the treasurer has refused to rule out.
“We aren’t committing to do anything other than all options remaining on the table here,” he says.
Adding to the budget pressures this week was Bill Shorten, who suggested state governments needed to contribute more to the national disability insurance scheme.
Mookhey is open to a proposal from the federal minister, saying it is in the “national interest” to protect people who need it and any money that goes into it.
Balancing the budget and home life
Last month, Mookhey became the first NSW minister to be sworn in on sacred Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita.
His wife, Tamsin Lloyd – former adviser to the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, and now to the state’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe – looked on proudly. Mookhey says they plan to continue taking an equal role in looking after their boys, aged 7 and 4.
“I quarantine a lot of time for my kids,” he says.
“I do all the cooking in the household and I do the drop-offs and I take them to sport and that will remain what I do.”
Mookhey has a particular passion for north Indian cuisine and barbecue from southern parts of the US. He’s received a bit of flak for bringing his own lunch to work – but it’s just better, he says.
There’s a strong US flavour in the leaders he says he takes inspiration from, such as Barack Obama and John Lewis, for whom he has a “huge growing respect”.
He also takes guidance from Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X for “how you deliver radical social change in a way which is inclusive”.
The next state budget will be handed down in September.
Much like his spectacles, Mookhey has begun assembling a wardrobe of experts and advisers of past and present treasurers, including Jim Chalmers, to provide some options.
“I welcome all expertise, ideas from people of all walks of life,” he says.
“I’m very eager to hear people’s ideas about what we could be doing better.”
