Vale Michael Egan AO

A message from the Secretary of NSW Treasury, Michael Coutts-Trotter

I write to acknowledge the death last night of a major figure in the history of the NSW Treasury, Michael Egan AO, the State’s longest-serving Treasurer.

Michael was Treasurer for nearly a decade from 3 April 1995 until 21 January 2005 and was the first member of the Upper House to hold the portfolio.

It was my privilege to work as a ministerial adviser to Michael for most of that time.

As I’m sure long-standing members of Treasury staff will confirm, Michael enjoyed an excellent and productive working relationship with the Treasury.

Michael respected and trusted the staff of Treasury and sought their frank advice, even if he didn’t always take it.

As he once told a conference of auditors-general and parliamentarians, '…a good Treasury will never just tell you what you want to hear. Their job is to make sure you are always aware of the bad news and the pitfalls of the things you are planning to do.'

Entering politics in October 1978, Michael Egan served in the Legislative Assembly for more than five years as Member for Cronulla and in the Legislative Council for more than 18 years.

On becoming Treasurer, Michael rapidly returned the NSW Budget to surplus and kept it there, building the reputation of the Government for economic and fiscal competence.

As the appendix of historic fiscal indicators in the 2023-24 Budget shows, six of his nine surplus budgets also posted a surplus on a net lending basis.

During his stewardship, NSW all but eliminated net debt while also investing heavily to improve essential services and infrastructure and hosting the Olympic Games.

Three months after becoming Treasurer, and before his first Budget, Michael released a program of far-reaching financial management and competition policy reforms.

Among these, he drove changes to make NSW ports, energy, rail and water more competitive, reducing prices for households and businesses, improving living standards and creating jobs.

One of his proudest achievements was to ensure an increase in competition in the freight rail sector despite that policy decision reducing the sale price the Government achieved for the sale of its freight rail business.

Despite having no qualification in the field, as a policy-maker Michael was first and foremost an economist, although a very pragmatic one.

He was impatient with theorists and purists and would regularly remind colleagues – and the Treasury?– not to let the perfect become the enemy of the good.

As the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council – where during his time the Government never enjoyed a majority – he excelled at producing economic improvements through the messy compromise of politics.

While, in his own words, ‘Labor to his bootstraps’ and never one to ‘altercate in undertones’ he was never rancorous and enjoyed a great many friendships across politics.

He cherished the Parliament and our other democratic institutions and always acted to ensure they deserved the public’s trust.

After politics Michael held a number of positions, mostly in the public and not-for profit sector.

The role he enjoyed most was as Chancellor of Macquarie University.

He boasted that he had personally graduated some 40,000 students, a record – like his tenure as Treasurer – unlikely ever to be broken.

It was my great good fortune to know Michael Egan.

He will be missed.