NSW budget 2026 LIVE updates: Car, motorcycle registration slashed, public transport fares frozen as Treasurer Daniel Mookhey hands down state budget

Motorists and public transport commuters are the biggest beneficiaries of pre-poll budget sweeteners.

Opal fares for public transport will be frozen for the next 12 months in a bid to ease cost-of-living pressures. Fares have typically risen in line with inflation, increasing by 3.2 per cent last July, and by 5 per cent a year earlier.

In another carrot, vehicle registrations for private cars will be cut by $100 for the next year, while those for motorcycles will drop by $80.

The weekly cap on tolls for motorists will be lowered to $50 from $60 for the next 12 months while administration charges on toll notices will be scrapped from July 1.

Read more here from transport and infrastructure editor Matt O’Sullivan.

The NSW government will be in the red for an eighth consecutive year after the Minns government forecast a $2.3 billion deficit in 2026-27.

Next year’s deficit is double what was forecast in December, due in part to the government’s $561 million transport affordability package that will temporarily reduce the weekly road toll cap and freeze public transport fares.

However, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey is forecasting a return to surplus the following financial year; if that is achieved it will be the state’s first balanced budget since 2018-19.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has wrapped up his budget speech, noting “NSW succeeds when its people succeed”.

“Governments’ role is not to replace the efforts of our citizens, it is to empower them, to build the roads, railways, and energy systems that allow them to flourish. To educate the next generation, to uphold the rule of law to protect those leaving violence, to care for people’s health and to create the conditions on the enterprise investment and fair work.”

Mookhey said the budget sets to “build a state that working Australians can afford, a state that rewards effort, a state that expands opportunity, a state whose future is ours to choose”.

We have analysis and reports coming your way, so stay tuned!

Motorists and public transport commuters are the biggest beneficiaries of pre-poll budget sweeteners.

Opal fares for public transport will be frozen for the next 12 months in a bid to ease cost-of-living pressures. Fares have typically risen in line with inflation, increasing by 3.2 per cent last July, and by 5 per cent a year earlier.

In another carrot, vehicle registrations for private cars will be cut by $100 for the next year, while those for motorcycles will drop by $80.

The weekly cap on tolls for motorists will be lowered to $50 from $60 for the next 12 months while administration charges on toll notices will be scrapped from July 1.

Read more here from transport and infrastructure editor Matt O’Sullivan.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has promised to “combat the scourge of family and domestic violence” by improving programs in the state, conceding “we must do better”.

“The government will increase core funding for frontline domestic and family violence by 50 per cent over the next four years, the biggest increase ever.”

“People looking after people is a core service of government,” said Mookhey.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey is delivering his budget speech and has promised that this is a budget driven by “our people’s concerns”.

First on the agenda: motorists and commuters.

The treasurer has vowed to cap tolls at $50 a week, slash the cost of vehicle registration by $100 for every private car and $80 for motorcycles for the next 12 months.

Commuters will reap the benefits of this budget as well.

“For the 4.2 million people catching a train, a bus, or a ferry each month, we’re freezing your fares. For the next 12 months, you will not pay a cent more for public transport than you do for today, not on trains, not on buses, not on ferries,” said Mookhey.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey is delivering his budget speech. Tune in live right here.

In May, the Herald’s Parramatta bureau staff examined western Sydney’s infrastructure deficits in our series Stranded Sydney. We focused particularly on suburbs where population growth has exceeded road, transport, health, leisure and school capacity.

There is some relief we already know of in this budget:

• A new primary school and high school for Bella Vista, and five new schools in the south-west.
• Funding for hospitals and upgrades at Rouse Hill ($910 million), Bankstown ($2 billion), Fairfield ($630 million), and additional beds at Blacktown and Mount Druitt ($120 million).
• Upgrading Windsor Road at Rouse Hill.
• Upgrading Elizabeth Drive and Fifteenth Avenue to improve links to Western Sydney International Airport.

Parramatta bureau chief Anthony Segaert will examine what the budget delivers for western Sydney when Treasurer Daniel Mookhey speaks in parliament around lunchtime.

Read our full Stranded Sydney series here.

Today is the Labor government’s last budget before the election, and comes at a time when the state is staring down a faltering economy, falling revenue and the rise of One Nation - on top of global uncertainty.

It has meant the lead-up to the budget has been marked by its lack of sizzle. While pre-election budgets are typically big spending affairs, Mookhey has made few significant announcements beyond a little toll relief, some health funding increases and a handful of new schools in growing suburbs.

The state has now had seven consecutive budget deficits since the disruptions of COVID-19 and at least one more is expected; that’s the longest spell of negative budget balances in the modern era.

Economics reporter Matt Wade and state political editor Michael McGowan sat down with the treasurer last week. You can read their report here.

In the lead-up to his election budget, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has been laying the groundwork for some sober reading. Here is what we know so far.

CRIME

• The NSW Crime Commission will receive an extra $17.4 million over four years, bringing 2026’s funding to $46.4 million, to compel more suspected criminals to attend hearings and to hire more analysts and forensics experts to investigate suspicious unexplained wealth.

HEALTH

• New hospital alert: The government has committed to funding a range of previously announced health infrastructure programs, including new hospitals at Rouse Hill ($910 million), Bankstown ($2 billion) and Eurobodalla ($330 million), as well as Fairfield Hospital’s redevelopment ($630 million), and additional beds for Blacktown and Mount Druitt hospitals ($120 million).
• Some $400 million will be poured into a hospital maintenance “blitz” that comes after a fungus cluster was implicated in the deaths of two transplant patients at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. It led to revelations about wider maintenance issues, including pigeon infestations causing cases of bird lice, and maggots dropping onto patients’ beds.

Some welcome news for Sydney motorists: the cap on tolls will be cut from $60 to $50 a week for 12 months as part of a suite of targeted cost-of-living measures to be unveiled by the Minns government in today’s budget.

The government will also scrap administration charges on toll notices as part of a deal with private motorway operators, set to come into effect next month. The fee on a toll notice has been $10, but doubled to $20 if not paid within 55 days. Under the changes, motorists will receive early text and email notifications without fees.

However, stronger enforcement measures will be applied to those who fail to pay tolls.

You can read the full story by Michael McGowan and Matt O’Sullivan here.