Labor’s latest announcement regarding the sale of lotteries products will expose taxpayers to hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.

The Labor leader is gambling with the future of NSW, making rash announcements without explaining how they would be funded. Labor’s latest plan is to renege on the deal it made in government regarding the sale of NSW Lotteries in 2010.

As part of the 40-year licence granted to the Tatts Group, a five-year moratorium was put in place on the sale of lotteries products, giving newsagencies time to prepare for a competitive market.

Labor now wants to renege on this agreement, which will deprive the state of growth in duties revenue, trigger massive compensation to the Tatts Group and poison the market’s view of sovereign risk in NSW.

NSW Treasury estimates the potential loss to the state could be as much $1 billion for an ongoing extension of the moratorium.

Luke Foley’s plan would cost taxpayers more than they actually received when Labor sold NSW Lotteries in the first place.

The NSW government has been engaging productively with Tatts and newsagents for weeks over the transition away from exclusivity.

We will continue this process, and if further measures are needed, we will take them. But unlike Mr Foley’s latest thought bubble, they will be responsible and properly costed.

On the day he was appointed leader, Luke Foley said he wanted NSW to be the nation’s social conscience, yet his first major announcement was a $339 million tax cut for the racing industry to prop up prize money at Randwick.

His proposal for a koala national park on the North Coast is also estimated to cost taxpayers $106 million, and now he’s committing $380 million from the lease of Port Kembla, a transaction Labor opposed.

Labor has opposed every single one of our savings measures to repair the budget and is now spending money it doesn’t have. It is the biggest economic threat to NSW.