For an outfit criticised as having too many bankers and not enough economists in its ranks, the NSW Coalition government has presided over an economy that has done remarkably well over the past decade. And as for the limitations of state economic management, I’ll say this about the state economy: you’ll know it when it’s handled badly.

Most striking about the NSW economy is that it has held its share of the national economic cake, or GDP, at almost 32 per cent over the past 10 years while in the previous decade it had dropped from over 36 per cent. Also, it increased its output per person relative to that for all of Australia by 3 per cent whereas previously it had fallen by 9 per cent.

So, at the macro-level, the NSW economy matched Western Australia and outpaced all other states. Only the smaller territories of the NT and ACT did relatively better. NSW gained a competitive edge on several fronts.

The most important was the scale of social and economic infrastructure construction which helped Sydney and regional cities catch up with their strong population growth. Proceeds from selling government businesses (tagged “asset recycling”) and heavy borrowing in the past three years tripled capital spending on works from $7 billion in 2010/11 to more than $22 billion this year. Some projects, such as stadium demolitions, Randwick light rail and the Powerhouse museum relocation, were dubious, but the vast majority withstood cost-benefit analysis.

The outcome of this construction drive is everywhere to be seen – a vast metro rail system, new tollways interconnecting Sydney plus the renewal and addition of hospitals, schools and other public buildings.

Former Labor roads and transport minister Carl Scully fretted in his autobiography: “The current Liberal National Party state government is now getting on and building the major rail and road infrastructure across Sydney and fully exploiting the fact that three post-Carr premiers were simply asleep at the infrastructure wheel.”

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There has also been an improvement in citizen and business interaction with government agencies through establishing Service NSW offices in most localities, and the digitisation of the whole public sector to an extent not tried by other governments. That has given NSW Health the upper hand in rapid COVID-19 testing and tracing, which helped avoid prolonged and disruptive lockdowns. It’s now widely recognised that NSW is the “gold standard” for managing the pandemic. Hence the popularity of the Premier, who first showed her mettle in a crisis with the black summer bushfires.