The New South Wales Treasurer has likened some Australian states to call centres and lunch rooms and described the past 200 years in other states as "pretty unremarkable".
In an attempt to restore pride in the state, Dominic Perrottet will today tell the Business Council of Australia that NSW was born to be the "premier state".
"If NSW is the head office of Australia, South Australia is the call centre, Victoria the maintenance department and Queensland the lunch room," the Minister will say.
"Sydney is our most exceptional city and NSW our most exceptional state."
Mr Perrottet will differentiate the state from its siblings by the fact that it has not relied on "drill rigs or boring machines".
"In Western Australia, prosperity comes almost entirely from digging things out of the ground and selling them," he said.
"Queensland is much the same.
"And apart from the rust belt manufacturing state of Victoria, the other states have had a solid but pretty unremarkable 200 years."
The "secret sauce" of NSW is the people, he will say.
The state now needs to go from "good to great", as the decade since the Olympics has only known for its "mediocrity" according to Mr Perrottet.
'Too much' reliance on overseas talent
The Treasurer will draw attention to NSW's advanced manufacturing industry, praising medical isotope production in Lucas Heights and steel production in Unanderra for American and Israeli armoured vehicles.
However Mr Perrottet said there are still runs to be made in the financial sector and the state needs to prove its power in the next big thing — fintech (financial technology).
Sydney is currently ranked eighth strongest in the world of fintech, which uses technology to improve finance activities (think mobile banking, cryptocurrency).
Mr Perrottet said to keep out in front, NSW must stop relying on talent from overseas.
"It is not acceptable in the long run. We need to build a skills base here," he said.
This, he says, will be aided by the new University of Sydney campus in Westmead, the new western Sydney Aerotropolis (for aerospace, defence and manufacturing among other things) and a new Agricultural High School in Sydney's north west.
These facilities will help future generations who will have to tackle more automation and artificial intelligence, the Treasurer said.
