Labor’s domestic violence election commitments could “affect the delivery of some services” by Legal Aid and New South Wales police, the independent body charged with analysing the cost of both major parties’ promises has warned.
Labor has made a series of commitments on domestic violence in the lead-up to the state election including funds for a pilot program for specialist sexual violence police in a handful of local areas and the extension of a series of court-advocacy programs.
The programs are all expected to be funded out of the existing budgets of both police and Legal Aid, and in its pre-election costings the Parliamentary Budget Office raised concerns that their implementation could see other initiatives cut.
On Labor’s $6.5m promise to extend a pilot court advocacy service for women who experience domestic violence, the PBO wrote that Legal Aid had advised “this can only be achieved by reprioritising funding away from existing service delivery”.
“The Parliamentary Budget Office notes absorbing the costs could be difficult in practice and may affect the delivery of some services,” it stated.
The PBO issued similar warnings for four other Labor promises relating to domestic violence and multicultural support services, including a $1.8m commitment to fund a pilot program of sexual violence liaison officers in five local area commands.
In a statement, an opposition spokesperson said its domestic violence policies “have all been allocated dedicated funding as part of our budget process” and that it did not expect to have to divert funding.
“We do not anticipate needing to divert additional funding from existing services to fund these schemes. A Labor government will of course keep the financing of every project under close review,” the spokesperson said.
But the NSW minister for women, Natalie Ward, claimed the costings showed Labor was planning to “cut existing programs”.
“It’s very disappointing to see that Labor are proposing to cut existing programs which are right now having a positive impact on the lives of domestic violence victim-survivors,” she said.
“Lives depend on our initiatives which is why the Liberal and Nationals government has invested a record $787m over the last two budgets and an additional $100m if re-elected.”
Friday marks the final day of campaigning before the election, with Labor looking likely to form government for the first time since 2011.
The party faced a last-minute controversy after its candidate in the battleground seat of South Coast was recorded saying problem gambling was predominantly an issue in western Sydney among certain “cultural groups”.
Gambling reform has been a major issue in the election campaign after Labor refused to back premier Dominic Perrottet’s push for mandatory cashless gambling in NSW.
The party instead promised a trial of the technology to be rolled out across 500 clubs and pubs in Sydney and regional NSW.
But at a forum in Huskisson last week Labor’s candidate in the seat, Liza Butler, said the technology should be trialled in Sydney’s west first before being rolled out more widely.
“So let’s strengthen clubs to self-regulate, and trial a cashless card in Sydney where the problem really is, in western Sydney with lots of cultural groups, and see if it actually works so we don’t push people into secret gambling,” Butler said.
Responding to the comments on Thursday, the Labor leader, Chris Minns, said gambling was more of an issue in some communities.
“I’m sure that is the case, and gambling harm across NSW is something that we would inherit if we do win government on the 25th of March. We know that it’s a problem,” he said.
Labor will use the final day of campaigning to renew its attack on the government over privatisation.
Labor will announce on Friday that its first piece of legislation if elected will be a bill to amend the state’s constitution to ban the sale of Sydney Water.
Despite the premier, Dominic Perrottet, repeatedly ruling out any sale of the utility, Labor has campaigned heavily on the issue, accusing the government of conducting scoping work on a potential sale of the asset.
Last week it produced documents that showed the Coalition spent about $400,000 on consultant reports prior to the outsourcing of a water recycling plant in Sydney’s west. The documents also suggested consideration of a wider privatisation of the utility.
Minns insisted the fate of the utility was “on the ballot on Saturday”.
“Which is why protecting Sydney Water will be our first legislative act after the campaign,” he said.
“That’s the choice at this election. Only Labor will amend our constitution to end privatisation.”
