Speaker -  

In 2023, I stood here and made a record investment in housing for the State’s essential workers.  

In 2024, I came back to launch the biggest investment in social housing since World War II.  

A historic $5.1 billion plan to build 8400 homes for social housing, half of them for the victim survivors of family and domestic violence.  

Today, I am announcing a nation-leading market intervention to get the private sector to build, build, and build even more homes for our citizens to buy and rent.  

Pre-sale Finance Guarantee

I can announce the Minns Labor Government will become the guarantor of up to $1 billion worth of new housing projects on a rolling basis, bringing forward the construction of up to 15,000 extra market homes over the next five years.  

These are the projects that will add more low-to-medium density housing in neighbourhoods people love to live in.  

They are the most challenging projects to deliver under current market conditions. Also, they are the projects we need to get started, and get built, to tackle the affordability crisis.  

For projects eligible for the new guarantee, the Government will guarantee the sale of a set number of homes.  

This will spare industry from some of the time and cost of having to convince their lenders there are enough buyers for the homes they want to build.

It will let them get on with building more homes for people to buy.  

And it will make sure more of the homes that are getting approved are then getting built.  

Build to Rent

Paired with the Pre-Sale Finance Guarantee, is a tax-cut to spur the construction of more apartments for people to rent.  

The Government will make permanent the 50 per cent land tax discount for build-to-rent projects.  

Ending doubt about whether these projects can get funding from the market. Sending a strong signal that build-to-rent is here to stay.

Works-In-Kind  

We will also make it easier for industry to partner with governments to build the streets, pavements, lights, schools, police stations and other vital essential services needed in our towns and suburbs as communities expand.  

A new works-in-kind contribution regime will let industry offset investment in neighbourhood services amenity from their tax bill, when it is in the public’s interest to do so.  

TAFE

More investment in essential worker housing. Record investment in social housing. The Pre-sale Finance Guarantee. Permanent Build-To-Rent land-tax concessions. A new works-in-kind works regime.  

All policies to build, build and build our way out of the housing crisis.  

But we need more people to build them.  

More plumbers. More electricians. More carpenters. More construction workers.

That is why the 2025 budget is delivering a record $3.4 billion investment in TAFE and Skills funding,  

This is an extra $1.2 billion for TAFE over the next four years, for:

• 23,000 newly trained construction workers
• upskilling 4,800 tradies to be site ready
• More school career fairs, and to offer
• 3,000 try-a-trade opportunities in construction.

And with $78 million we will retain high quality educators by converting TAFE teachers from casual to permanent.

Delivery and Planning speed

The reforms I announce today complement the reform the Government has implemented already to cut taxes for first home buyers and begin overhauling our planning system.  

Since July 1 2023, 62,000 first-home buyers have saved an average of $20,500 on stamp duty.  

Meanwhile, the Housing Delivery Authority is streamlining assessments for 53,000 new homes for people to own or rent.  

The Infill Affordable Housing Bonus has meant we have approved 2,800 extra dwellings - 500 set aside for affordable homes.  

The Transport Oriented Developments program has led to proposals to build thousands of extra homes within 400 metres of public transport in neighbourhoods people love to live in.

Average assessment times for councils have fallen 17 per cent and, just last month, they fell below 100 days for the first time since 2022.  

Together, these measures have meant more than 70,000 new homes are under construction.

A housing crisis that was decades in the making will not end overnight.  

So let us all resolve to keep building. To keep reforming. To make sure that New South Wales never turns into a state that cannot afford to house its grandchildren.  

Because everyone deserves to live in a secure home they can afford. Including children for whom it is unsafe to live at their home. Kids in state-care. The state’s most vulnerable children.  

Out-of-home care

Speaker -  

I remind the House that in March 2023, more than 100 children cared for by the State of New South Wales were sleeping in motels.  

Unaccredited emergency accommodation. No proper support. Barely adequate supervision.

I further remind the House that in March 2023, nearly one-in-ten caseworker positions at the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) were vacant.  

DCJ had all but stopped recruiting foster carers.  

And no foster carer had received a major rise in the foster care allowance since it was introduced more than 20 years ago.  

But today I can report to this House better news. Since April this year, for the first time in more than 20 years, no children are staying in motels.

Why?  

Minister Washington has spent 2 years leading reforms to a broken system - meaning New South Wales can invest more so kids under State care get safe care.  

Today, I announce the biggest investment in child protection in New South Wales history:  a record $1.2 billion uplift. The first major investment in nearly two decades.

$797.6 million of additional funding will fix what was a chronically - and tragically - underfunded system.

And $191.5 million is set aside to give 2,126 case workers a pay rise.  

This will help us fill the 200 caseworker positions still vacant, and let us create 100 new leading caseworker roles,  

This will be paid for by mutual-gains bargaining, and funded from the savings created by no longer having to pay labour-hire firms to care for kids in motels.  

Foster Care Allowance

I can also announce the first major increase in the Foster Care Allowance in 20 years.  

It is going up by 20 per cent, starting 1 January, 2026.  

For the foster carer of a 5-year-old child, that is $3,411.20 extra per year.

For the foster carer of 14-year-old, that is $4,576.00 more per annum.  

Those with love to give a child needing foster care should have the financial means to do so. Budget 2025-26makes that more possible.

Access to Justice

Speaker -

Last year, this Government began paying recruits training to become the State’s next police officers at the Goulburn Police Academy.  

Since then, 4,296 people have made applications to join NSW Police - more than ever before.

We also made NSW Police the best-paid in the nation, delivering them a once-in-a-generation pay rise.  

This was paid for by fixing a police insurance scheme no longer fit for purpose.  

A mutual gain. No wage cap needed.  

In Budget 2025, we invest more in justice and crime prevention.  

There is half-a-billion dollars extra to improve access to justice, as well as to support the victim-survivors of domestic and family violence.  

$226.8 million is for the Victim Support Scheme.  

$34.5 million is for building 15 new courtrooms, including 10 virtual courtrooms to speed up remote bail hearings and reduce delays.  

There is $272.7 million set aside so support the State’s domestic, family and sexual violence assistance services - meaning their baseline funding is 50 per cent higher than it was in February 2023,  

And the Government will spend $49.4 million building a vulnerable persons court hub so children and women no longer have to be in the same room as an alleged offender when giving evidence.  

Speaker -

Budget 2025-26sees the Government deliver relief and reform as families recover from the most severe cost of living crisis in decades.  

Doctors bulk-billing more than 80 per cent of their patients in metropolitan Sydney - and 70 per cent of patients in regional NSW - are exempt from payroll tax on contractor wages.  

The NSW Motorways Corporation begins operations from next week, seeded with a $58 million investment in this Budget, as the work of fixing the privatisation toll concessions entered into by our predecessors goes on.  

Relief initiatives like these count in the short term - but only if matched with reform for the long term.  

And the best reform for the long term is to make sure real wages grow for the families of New South Wales.  

That is why I am glad to report to the House that real wages are expected to grow each year for the next 4 years.  

This is the progress we are making. But further progress is not assured. Real wage growth is threatened if the premier state returns to policies that lead to wage suppression.

Policies like a wages cap for essential workers.  

So, any party determined to make living in New South Wales more affordable would immediately rule out reintroducing the wage cap that applied in NSW from 2012 to 2023.  

Speaker –  

Major new investments in TAFE, in child protection and in access to justice are just the beginning.

Budget 2025-26 invests more in the essential services people rely on.  

Health

Let’s begin with health.  

Public hospitals should always centre on public health, not private profits.  

We do not want an Americanised healthcare system here in New South Wales.  

We do not want - and should never have let - private equity firms run public emergency wards like at the Northern Beaches Hospital.  

That’s why this Labor Government banned-by-law the previous Liberal Government’s public hospital privatisation model.  

We choose to invest in public hospitals. We refuse to sell them.  

Hence our $12.4 billion spend on health infrastructure in Budget 2025-26.  

Work to build Western Sydney’s first new hospital in 40 years at Rouse Hill continues with an additional $910 million so the hospital can open with maternity services.  

A further $700 million will bring the Bankstown Hospital rebuild to $2.0 billion in total.  

$492 million will establish a new pathology hub at Westmead.

This is combined with a further $158.8 million for regional helicopter bases in Port Macquarie, Moruya and Wagga Wagga.

In maternity care, $105.7 million will grow the workforce and expand regional and culturally responsive care.

And $836.4 million will support core health services, reduce overdue surgeries and fund the opening of new and upgraded hospitals including:  

• the Children's Hospital at Westmead
• Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick
• Gunnedah Hospital.

Public Transport  

Our people need homes, they need skills and they need good public transport.  

Good public transport makes for more than just a quick ride home; it hands people back their time.  

So that is why the Budget invests $522.2 million to improve public transport across the State.

There is $369.9 million to maintain and increase bus services across Western Sydney: adding school routes, improving reliability, and integrating the bus network better with trains and Sydney’s new metros.  

We're also adding 75 new buses with an $82.3 million investment.

And we’re rebuilding our local bus industry as part of it - ensuring what can be made here will be.

Energy

Turning to energy -  

The NSW Government will be investing alongside the private sector.  

This Budget includes continued investment of $2.1 billion via the Transmission Acceleration Facility to fast-track five Renewable Energy Zones: from the Central-West Orana to the Illawarra.

We’ve completed financing for the Central-West Orana transmission project—unlocking $20 billion in private investment, 5,000 construction jobs and clean energy for 2 million homes.

To support this, we’re investing $115.5 million in a logistics hub at the Port of Newcastle, and $128 million for community benefits in host regions.

With emissions down 20 per cent since 2019-20, New South Wales is now more than halfway to our 2030 renewable energy target.

The Aerotropolis

The Aerotropolis is a major part of Western Sydney’s future.

That’s why we’ve invested $1.0 billion for the first stage of the Fifteenth Avenue Upgrade.

Alongside these roads, a further $123.6 million this year is allocated for the safety and minor works needed to get the Aerotropolis ready for opening day.  

It is just the latest in more than $25 billion of public infrastructure investment in the Aerotropolis from the NSW and Australian Government.  

Roads

The impact of a directly and globally connected Western Sydney is why we’re spending $5.5 billion for roads across Western Sydney, including:

$220 million for Henry Lawson Drive

upgrades to major corridors like the M7-Richmond Road and Townson Road, and roads to support the new Rouse Hill Hospital.

We’re also making our roads safer state-wide with $731.7 million in 2025–26, for safer school zones, better signage, and thousands of kilometres of new line markings and crash barriers.

And we’re investing $500 million to finally deliver Mona Vale Road West.

Regional roads

Across regional New South Wales, we are partnering with the federal government to deliver major new roads and upgrades.

The Riverina Murray region will benefit from $206 million worth of upgraded roads between Parkes and the Victorian border - improving safety and reducing delays where inland rail intersects with state roads.

$23.1 million will begin construction to widen the Marshalls Creek Bridge and reduce congestion in Wagga Wagga.

The Illawarra-Shoalhaven will benefit from $680.5 million to continue Princes Highway projects, including upgrades to Jervis Bay Road and the Milton-Ulladulla bypass.

$741.7 million will continue construction of the M1 to Raymond Terrace extension and Hexham Straight widening projects.

$267 million will fast-track construction on the Muswellbrook bypass.

And $100.0 million will fund the Westbound Overpass at the Maitland Roundabout.

Emergency services

As for emergency services, this Government is backing our first responders.  

Budget 2025-26includes:

$42.2 million for a new 24-hour fire station at Badgerys Creek. Servicing Western Sydney International Airport and its surroundings. $34.4 million to lease firefighting aircraft.

$50 million to upgrade police ICT systems and $46.3 million for a new offshore patrol vessel.

And in an era of growing digital threats, we’re investing $87.7 million to strengthen Cyber Security NSW.

But for communities that feel the effects of natural disasters, we know we have more to do.  

$154.5 million is being delivered to help communities recover from Cyclone Alfred.

$358.3 million set aside in this budget to respond to the May 2025 East Coast floods.

This budget we have also allocated another $27 million to repair water and sewer infrastructure damaged in the 2022 Central West floods.  

In total, this Budget sets aside $4.2 billion for disaster relief for communities still recovering from disasters over the past several years.  

First Nations  

This Budget also delivers a record $731.8 million to support First Nations communities across New South Wales - reflecting our deep commitment to partnership, self-determination, and better outcomes.

We are investing $246.8 million in Closing the Gap initiatives.

We are also committing a further $484.9 million for housing, new Aboriginal controlled early childhood education centres and other community support. 

Investment Delivery Authority  

Speaker -

This Government is unapologetically pro-growth.  

We want the jobs, we want the homes, we want the innovation that will make us prosper.  

In preparing for this Budget, I have been meeting with those who are building New South Wales, and are building in New South Wales, every day.

The workers, manufacturers, investors, tech leaders, and innovators whose decisions help determine the pace of New South Wales’ economic growth.  

I’ve asked them directly:  

What is stopping you from scaling your business? What is stopping you from creating more jobs? Or paying higher wages? Or spending more on research and development?  

Above all -  

What stops you from investing more in New South Wales?  

And they tell me:

Everything about New South Wales is awesome! Except the time it takes to get major projects done.

Every serious economist agrees: more private-sector investment will unlock the next great era of Australian economic growth.

Major projects - the projects that drive productivity - need to be built faster.  

That is why we are creating the Investment Delivery Authority - modelled on the successful Housing Delivery Authority - to fast-track approvals of non-residential investments worth more than $1 billion.

We expect the IDA will help bring forward up to $50 billion in private investment each year by cutting through red tape and helping projects move from concept to construction faster.  

We’re talking about the renewable energy projects, data centres, hotels and logistics precincts that create jobs, lift wages, boost productivity and lift our living standards.  

Better and fairer Schools

In a modern, innovative economy, investment must be paired with education.  

Education does not just help our children lead fulfilled lives. It is an economic proposition.  

Yet, we have been confronted with decades of declining standards and record-high teacher vacancies leaving us. With more merged and cancelled classrooms.  

That is why the first budget of this Labor Government injected hundreds of millions of dollars into education, growing average funding per student from $14,819 in 2023 to $17,022 in 2025.  

We’ve driven down teacher vacancies by 40 per cent.  

And we’ve halved the number of merged and cancelled classes.  

But our work was just beginning.  

In February, the NSW and Australian Labor governments signed an agreement that would inject $10.4 billion into public education over the next decade.  

This includes $5.6 billion from the Minns Labor Government alongside $4.8 billion from the Albanese Labor Government.  

This means more small group tutoring, more specialised support, and more advanced opportunities.  

The agreement fulfils the funding objective promised in the Gonski Reforms so long ago.  

School Infrastructure

We’re investing $9.0 billion over 4 years to build and upgrade schools where they’re needed most.  

Today’s budget includes funding for four new schools that will add 140 classrooms to accommodate 2,500 students.  

The south-west will have a new primary school in Emerald Hills and a new high school in Wilton.

Grantham Farm in the north-west will have a new primary school.  

And West Dapto, in the Illawarra, will have a new primary school, which is finally accounted for in this Budget.

These new schools are accompanied by new upgrades at Newington, Excelsior, Thornton, Rydalmere, Rydalmere East, Ermington West, Asquith, Bayside and Northern Beaches Secondary College.

Since being elected, the Minns Labor Government has commenced construction on more than 25 new and upgraded schools for growing communities across New South Wales, with another 30 set to begin before the end of 2025.

Good investment for our kids. Good investment for our economy.  

Showing again Labor is the party of education. Labor will always be the party of education.  

Creative economy  

New South Wales relies on selling the intelligence of our people to the world. We will grow our economy faster by backing our creative industries.  

That is why there is $586 million in Budget 2025-26for tourism, film, screen, games, and our other artistic industries.  

That includes a $280.6 million for Screen NSW to bring stories to life right here and a further $100 million for a new film studio, taking local industry to the world.  

In addition, $135 million for Destination NSW will help grow our visitor economy.

And a further $91.3 million will renew tracks, campgrounds, and picnic areas in national parks which attract millions of visits every year.  

Innovation Blueprint

Speaker, this Budget sets a clear direction:

New South Wales is open for business, we’re a great place to innovate and invest, and we’re ready to grow.

Growth sometimes starts small.  

The new $79.2 million Innovation Blueprint will back emerging technologies, commercialisation, advanced manufacturing and ensure young entrepreneurs can connect with the incubators, accelerators and capital they need to scale.

We’re investing $472.9 million in long-term biodiversity protection and land management to secure regional economic growth and regional primary industries.

Workers Compensation

Getting projects built faster. Investing more in the skills and talents of one of the world's best workforces. Backing our creative industries: all these policies will boost growth.  

But their effect will be undermined if 340,000 small businesses have to pay 36 per cent more in workers compensation premiums because the Parliament has refused to reform a workers compensation system that is failing injured workers, failing small business, and failing the taxpayers too.  

Speaker -

The Legislative Assembly has done its part. Your House did what our citizens expect MPs to do.  

Grapple with facts. Make hard decisions. Do not make the perfect the enemy of the good. You sent a bill to the Legislative Council. But heretofore the Legislative Council has refused to even debate the bill.  

Because reform is blocked, the Budget is hit by $2.6 billion in additional workers compensation liabilities.  

Most of those expenses fall in the current budget year, and next budget year.  

Those blocking reform need to explain why this is a good use of money.  

Especially since it is public money that we could invest in preventing workplace injuries; and in getting sick and injured workers back to work.  

Let alone pumping more money into our schools, hospitals, roads, or public transport.

Every dollar injected into a failing system denies that dollar to our essential services.

Speaker -  

Fixing a broken worker’s compensation scheme. Countering the housing crisis. Supporting the State’s most vulnerable children. Backing business and workers. Investing even more in our schools and hospitals. Building the roads and public transport of the future: this is the progress we can make in Budget 2025-26.  

Progress made possible by Labor’s careful management of the public’s finances.  

The Budget Result

This budget improves our state’s fiscal position — without privatisation or an unfair wages cap.

And I am pleased to report that it outlines a pathway to a $1.1 billion surplus by 2027-28.  

It will be the first surplus since 2018-19 and represents a major turnaround from NSW's worst ever budget deficit - the $15.3 billion reported in 2021-2022.  

A recovery staged despite NSW losing $12.6 billion in GST income last year.  

Our careful spending will see the deficit fall from $10.7 billion in 2023/2024 to $5.7 billion in 24-25. A 5 billion improvement.  

In 25-26 tight spending discipline will see the deficit fall again to $3.4 billion. Then in 26-27 the deficit is likely to be $1.1 billion. Finally, in 27-28 and in 28-29 we are on track to report two consecutive surpluses of approximately $1.1 billion each year.  

I can further report -  

Expense growth is now projected to average just 2.4 per cent a year—down from 6.2 per cent under the previous government.

This is responsible, sustainable budgeting - delivering real investments while building long-term resilience.

Debt Under Control

We have also stabilised the State’s debt.  

The $188.2 billion of gross debt projected in the 2023 Pre-election Budget Update is now set to be $178.8 billion by June 2026.  

Almost $10 billion of Coalition debt has been avoided.  

And it's been done while delivering one of the largest infrastructure programs on record.  

By avoiding this debt, we save around $400 million in interest payments each and every year.  

This is $400 million that is helping secure the future of our essential services.  

The Economic Outlook  

As for the State’s economic outlook, Treasury’s analysis shows that the NSW economy is returning to normal following the disruptions primarily caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

For most of the last three years, the rising cost of living and higher interest rates have put pressure on households and dragged on economic growth.

The challenge is no longer high inflation, but low growth.

In this Budget we show that cost of living pressures and interest rates are easing and opportunities for economic growth are emerging.

Encouragingly, employment has increased by 178,000 positions between March 2023 and March 2025. More than 38,000 new small businesses have been created in the two years to June 2024.

While global developments always pose economic risks, the underlying economic fundamentals of NSW point to a pick-up in growth over the coming years. Our robust balance sheet equips us to support the NSW economy come-what-may. 

Speaker - The Minns Government is focused on the future of economic growth. It is focused on the future of families, their jobs, their businesses, their wages, their hospitals, their schools and their essential services. The Budget shows how in each year of this young Government we make progress. We have added to our ambition. We are building a better New South Wales. So, I return to the other place proud to commend these bills to your House.