2022-23 NSW Budget: Complete list of winners and losers

Women, Western Sydneysiders and those needing a door into the property market have won big, while public servants have missed out on a bigger pay rise. See the full list of budget winners and losers.

Women, Western Sydney residents and those looking for a door into the property market have won big in the state budget while public servants lament at missing out on a bigger pay rise and the budget bottom line took a battering with more debt.

Here is the complete list of winners and losers:

WINNERS

Women

A suite of measures aimed at boosting women’s participation in the workforce were announced in the lead-up to budget day but there were more goodies in store to be revealed on Tuesday. Women who are nurses, teachers or other public sector workers will get five days of paid fertility treatment leave on top of the already announced $2000 IVF rebates being introduced.

Money will be set aside to ensure the government is procuring its goods from female-owned businesses and $20m was committed to boost female participation in male dominated industries like construction. Cash was also put aside was creating more female-friendly sporting facilities and making cities safer from sexual harassment.

These were just some of the $4.9bn committed to helping women overcome the gender pay gap, gender discrimination and feel safer at home and in the streets.

Parents

Parents struggling with the ballooning household budget were offered $150 vouchers to help with back to school costs. The latest sweetener builds on previously announced measures including toll rebates, and initiatives to reduce electricity prices.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has described the 2022-23 Budget as family-focused. Picture: POOL via NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

First home buyers

The government moved to help struggling first home buyers get a foot in the market with stamp duty reform, allowing people to forgo stamp duty and instead pay an annual tax of $400 as well as 0.3 per cent of the land value of their home. It builds on their schemes to allow certain demographics to purchase a home with as little as 2 per cent for their deposit under a share equity scheme.

Western Sydney

The government has finally revealed the first investment under its WestInvest fund and it is good news for Western Sydney. Nine schools in west and southwest Sydney will be revamped and the region will also get two more ambulance stations in the coming year under health funding.

Aboriginal People

First Nations communities will benefit from $716m in funding over four years across a number of initiatives including $317.3m for housing, land rights and essential infrastructure, $178.8m to support Aboriginal youth and $91.1m for Aboriginal languages, culture and survivors of the Stolen Generation.

Police, Resilience NSW

The police force has been rewarded with funding for 550 more cops, new armoured vehicles and taser-triggered body cameras while Resilience NSW’s budget has been boosted once again despite heavy criticism of the frontline agency in the months following the devastating NSW floods.

Commissioner of Resilience NSW Shane Fitzsimmons speaks to the media during the state’s flood crisis in March. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Health

The government dropped big cash on health as the state battles the first proper flu season in three years. Another $899 will be spent on the continued management of Covid-19 while $4.5bn is allocated to boosting the healthcare workforce. A whopping $2.9bn has been set aside for mental health measures including singing on for universal suicide aftercare and dramatic funding increases for existing mental health measures.

LOSERS

Transport for NSW

The Department will have to put an extra $2bn towards the Metro City and Southwest line amid cost blowouts revealed in budget papers. Another $300m will go towards paying off the new Intercity Fleet.

The Mariyung is part of the new Intercity train fleet, which will require upgrades as agreed with the unions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Public sector

Although the budget provided a number of boosts for public sector workers, the fell short of meeting demands of an even higher wage rise. The government committed to a 3 per cent pay rise with 0.5 per cent for productivity measures – far off what different unions are demanding.

Budget bottom line

NSW’s debt level by 2030 is now forecasted to be almost double what the Perrottet government estimated a few months ago.

The state’s debt level at the end of the decade is now predicted to be close to double what the Perrottet government estimated only a few months ago. A chart in last June’s budget estimated the ratio of net debt to gross state product (GSP) would fall to 8 per cent by 2031. A comparable chart in December’s half-year fiscal review was even more optimistic, suggesting net debt would fall to 7 per cent of GSP over that time period.

But with the debt picture deteriorating as interest expenses blowout, the government has omitted that chart from its new budget. The Daily Telegraph understands the new aspiration is 12 per cent of GSP, which equates to many tens of billions of dollars more in debt.

The state’s debt by 2030 will be double that of previous projections, the new Budget papers reveal. Picture: NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Foreigners

Foreign drivers will now be required to sit a drivers test because they can venture out on NSW roads.

Foreigners driving on our roads using an overseas drivers’ licence will now have to sit a NSW drivers test. Under a crackdown starting from November 2022, drivers using an overseas driver's licence will now need to pass a NSW driver's licence test to continue driving after three months.

Foreigners have also been slugged with more investment tax, with the real estate tax on buying an investment in Sydney doubling from 2 per cent to 4 per cent.

Warragamba Dam

The Western Sydney dam project won’t receive any new funding following an Environmental Impact Statement being released for comment, with the proposal still working its way through the planning system. Calls for the dam’s wall to be raised intensified following the most recent floods in the Hawkesbury and Nepean Valleys.