Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
NEW NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance said the upcoming state budget “will be a cracker”.
Member for Bega Mr Constance was elevated from the Finance Minister’s role in new NSW Premier Mike Baird’s cabinet reshuffle announced at lunchtime Tuesday.
He will be officially sworn in at a ceremony at 10am Wednesday.
Although handed the Treasurer’s role only weeks out from a state budget, Mr Constance said he has been sitting around the expenditure review committee table for almost nine months and was well-placed to deliver his first budget on June 17.
“It will be a cracker,” he said after Tuesday’s cabinet announcement.
“I will be an outcomes-focused Treasurer – that means making the point that with infrastructure spending we are putting people and community first.
“We want to progress quickly and transform this state."
Mr Constance highlighted the NSW Liberal Party’s $13billion of infrastructure spending in regional NSW, and “significant input” of teachers, nurses and police in country NSW.
“We are going to, at pace, change NSW," he said.
“My absolute aspiration for all this is directly in line with Mike (Baird) – we are outcomes focused.
“We want to make sure life aspirations can be met for all individuals and that means providing a solid budget.”
Mr Constance said he was “humbled by the enormous opportunity” of his appointment as Treasurer.
“It has been an interesting week,” he said with not a little understatement.
“Certainly from a state perspective it’s great to have a Treasurer from Bega.
“I remain focused on making sure the South Coast gets a better deal.
“My feet will be on the ground – I will still be home three or four days a week slogging away as the local member.”
Mr Constance said his time as Minister for Finance and Services had been complex, but rewarding.
He said his successor to that portfolio, Castle Hill MP Dominic Perrottet, was “a smart guy” and will work under him in a tight-knit economic unit.