NSW budget winners and losers

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NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has announced a rebate for car registration, new caps on Opal fares and road tolls, and a $561.4 million cost-of-living relief package in Labor’s final budget before next year’s state election. This is who wins and loses from the budget.

Winners

• Motorists: The biggest pre-election cost-of-living sweetener is for road users. The cost of registration for a private car will be cut by $100, or $80 for a motorcycle. The weekly toll cap will also be reduced from $60 to $50 in the coming financial year as part of a $561.4 million transport affordability package.
• Families in growing suburbs: The government is building new schools in growing suburbs in south-west Sydney, north-west Sydney, the Hunter and the Illawarra. Suburbs getting new schools include Austral, Oran Park, Bella Vista and Rydalmere. In total, the government has committed $11.3 billion over five years for capital expenditure on the state’s schools.
• Energy bill payers: The government has allocated more than $550 million to the Home Energy Saver program, which provides interest-free loans and discounts for households to install energy-saving technology in homes.
• NSW government employees: Because Sydney CPI growth exceeded 4 per cent between 2025 and 2026, 120,000 NSW government employees will receive a $1000 cost-of-living payment. Frontline workers continue to benefit, with higher wages thanks to the removal of the wages cap.
• Domestic violence service providers: Six domestic and family violence programs will receive a share of $184.1 million in new funding, including programs that help women and children to remain in their homes after violence, and a Men’s Behaviour Change program. The Safer Pathways program, which conducts safety assessments to direct victim survivors to housing, financial and legal assistance, received $76.1 million.
• Treasurer’s war chest: The treasurer has allocated a $1.1 billion contingencies fund, which could be used for anything from emergencies to election commitments. Further shark mitigation programs, funding for the national gun buyback scheme and support for the Tomago aluminium smelter were all given as examples of future use of the fund.
• Elderly patients in NSW hospital beds: The state government often blames its federal counterparts for the bed block crisis in NSW, but this budget does include some funding to combat the problem at a state level. In fact, $35.7 million will go towards a pilot program to shift about 700 elderly people from hospital beds into permanent care.
• Domestic manufacturers: The budget includes a $6.5 billion program over 10 years to deliver thousands of new domestically built electric buses, and new electric bus depots. The government will open expressions of interest for a Modern Methods of Construction facility to build pre-fabricated homes.
• Integrity agencies: The Independent Commission Against Corruption is getting a 20 per cent boost in funding this year, the government budgeting $61.2 million, up from the $50.7 million spent last year. The ICAC has already held two inquiries this year, and it’s widely speculated that the anticipated inquiry into the Hills Shire Council’s links to property developer Jean Nassif is imminent.

Losers

• Housing: There’s little new to report in this budget to tackle the state’s housing crisis. The government’s key new measure is the pre-fabrication facility, plus funding for the Bays West Delivery Authority, but there were no new headline announcements to entice developers and no new major housing projects to report.
• Feral pigs: It’s a bad time to be a feral pig in NSW; $16.3 million was set aside for continuing pest control initiatives, but the government singled out pigs specifically.
• Start-ups: Small businesses, especially tech entrepreneurs, weren’t over-the-moon with the federal budget, and they’ve got little to smile about here. There’s no mention of start-ups in the budget papers, and no targeted cost-of-living measures for business owners.
• Art galleries and museums: Funding for Sydney’s major museums and libraries is mostly down this year. The Art Gallery of NSW budget for the coming financial year is down 2.4 per cent to $111 million. The Australian Museum’s funding is down 4 per cent to $79.6 million, and Destination NSW’s overall funding is down 9 per cent.
• Disabled patients stuck in hospitals: There were no targeted programs to reduce bed block for patients with disabilities. In NSW, 328 patients were stuck in hospital beds awaiting NDIS support at last count in March. That’s an 81 per cent increase on January 2024.
• Illegal firearms owners: The government recently passed tighter gun restrictions after the Bondi Beach attack, and now the NSW Firearms Registry is getting $42.8 million over 10 years to strengthen licence checks and for IT upgrades.

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