People are leaving NSW for other states at a higher rate than before the COVID-19 pandemic – with an exodus of more than 100,000 in one year – as cost-of-living and housing affordability pressures bite.
“I think part of it is the housing affordability issue – it becomes more affordable to people in especially blue-collar industries to kind of sell off the house in western Sydney and move to the Gold Coast,” he said. “This is a huge problem. We can’t be in a position where NSW is experiencing brain drain,” Minns said. “We have a shortage of healthcare workers and teachers. We should be attracting people from other states, not losing them.”
Perrottet has warned that removing the cap could result in a multibillion-dollar black hole in the state’s budget, given public sector pay accounts for 40 per cent of the government’s expenditure.