NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Opposition Leader Chris Minns have locked horns over health, education, gaming and infrastructure, in a debate ahead of next month’s election.

With the latest polls tipping a Labor victory on March 25, the leaders crossed swords on Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.

The premier pitched for the return of the coalition, saying it had steered the state through more than a decade that included drought, bushfires, the pandemic and floods.

He also cast doubt on Labor’s ability to deal with the economic challenges on the horizon.

“I think Labor doesn’t have the experience to deal with the issues that are coming our way,” Mr Perrottet said.

Mr Minns said 12 years of coalition government was enough and Labor was ready for the challenge.

“I think it’s time for a change, a fresh team that’s not divided,” he said.

Mr Minns challenged the premier over the stressed public health system, saying one in 10 people were forced to wait in hospital emergency departments longer than 24 hours.

The premier said the government had invested billions of dollars in health that “kept our state incredibly strong during the pandemic”, saying NSW had the strongest public health system in the country.

“There are challenges right across the country when it comes to health care, but that shouldn’t be politicised,” he said.

Mr Minns insisted the premier had not been listening to public sector workers, saying the shortage of health staff and teachers would only get worse because of the government’s three per cent cap on public sector wages.

“Seventy per cent of public sector workers in NSW are looking to move to other jurisdictions,” he said.

“The premier’s decision to put a wage freeze in place months before an explosion in inflation devastated parts of the NSW front-line public services.”

However, Mr Perrottet says the wages cap is fair and reasonable “because if you don’t control expense growth in the budget you can’t invest in front-line services”.

He also defended the privatisation of state assets to pay for $178 billion worth of infrastructure, saying projects such as the WestConnex tollway would not have been built without it.

Mr Perrottet said it was impossible to to build major infrastructure projects while scrapping the public sector wages cap, accusing Mr Minns of wanting to run the budget “like a school tuckshop”.

The premier rejected Mr Minns’ response that infrastructure projects could have been funded by dividends from state-owned corporations.

“You can’t build those projects on dividends,” he said.

However, the premier insisted he had “no plans” to privatise other government assets.

Mr Minns said privatisation had “gone too far”, with family budgets stretched to the limit paying excessive tolls to a private company.

“We’ve now got a 100 per cent privately owed toll road monopoly in the most tolled city on the face of the earth,” he said.

Mr Perrottet also attacked Labor’s approach to gaming reform, saying its refusal to endorse the government’s commitment to cashless gaming within five years was “just a weak response”.

Mr Minns said Labor’s plan to implement a cashless pokies trial on 500 machines was sound.

“I don’t want to see a situation where, despite the best intentions when it comes to reform, we in fact exacerbate gambling in NSW,” he said.

– AAP