Education: What Gladys Berejiklian’s election win means for you
Working families will be given a leg-up through the Berejiklian government’s education package which will make before and after school care available to every child in NSW on top of investing billions in building new schools and delivering thousands of extra teachers.
NSW
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Working families will be given a leg-up through the Berejiklian government’s education package which will make before and after school care available to every child in NSW on top of investing billions in building new schools and delivering thousands of extra teachers.
The Coalition will reduce the burden on time-poor mums and dads by requiring every public primary school to open playgrounds, halls and classrooms so kids can be cared for from 7am until 6pm by 2021. Principals will have access to a $120 million fund to set up after-hours care.
For schools that are smaller or in remote locations, where onsite services cannot be provided, the government will provide transport for students to and from offsite providers or other schools.
Meanwhile, eight new schools will be built in communities across NSW including Riverstone, Monaro, Epping, Mulgoa and the South Coast.
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A further 31 will be upgraded including Eastwood Public School in Ryde, Hunter River High School in Port Stephens and John Palmer Public School in Riverstone.
The work will be completed as part of an additional $917 million investment, taking the current four-year school building program to a record $6.5 billion.
And fewer students will have to sweat it out in sticky classrooms over the summer months thanks to a $500 million fund that will deliver airconditioning in the classrooms and libraries of more than 900 schools.
Parents can also be reassured that children will only learn in quality facilities. The school maintenance backlog will be wiped to zero by July 2020 as part of a $450 million investment, which will accelerate work including roof repairs, carpet maintenance and painting.
They can also expect to see better staffed classrooms with an extra 4,600 teachers to join the state’s public schools over the next four years as part of a $2 billion investment.
EDUCATION
► Aircondition classrooms and libraries in 900 schools across NSW
► Eight new and 31 upgraded schools to be delivered over the next four years
► Hire 4,600 extra teachers to join NSW public schools
► Wipe out the school maintenance backlog by July 2020
HEALTH
The election of the Berejiklian government in NSW means more nurses and doctors in public hospitals but ribbons won’t be cut on massive new building projects for several years.
And over the next four years the costs of IVF will be cheaper, hospitals will be made safer and children will have surgery more quickly.
The state’s local health districts have already begun recruiting thousands of extra staff with $2.8 billion set aside to fund 8300 new medicos for the coalface of hospitals.
There will be 5000 new nurses, 1060 more doctors and 800 allied health stuff such as pharmacists, social works and physiotherapists.
And there will be an extra 1360 hospital support staff distributed across the state.
For example, Western Sydney LHD — which covers Westmead, Blacktown, Mt Druitt and Auburn Hospitals — will receive at least 774 new staff including 113 doctors, 456 nurses and midwives, 82 allied health staff and 123 hospital support workers.
Meanwhile South Western Sydney LHD — which includes Bankstown, Campbelltown and Liverpool Hospitals — will receive at least 822 new staff, including 114 doctors, 502 nurses and midwives, 96 allied health staff and 110 hospital support workers.
Patients at smaller hospitals can also expect to have nurses care for them for longer with nursing hours per patient day rising to six hours from as little as 5.2 hours in some facilities.
Extra staffing at hospitals will also be used to blitz waiting lists with people awaiting cataract surgeries to be a big winner from extra funding.
Over the next four years there will be an extra 10,000 cataract surgeries completed.
Children awaiting non-elective surgeries will also be treated three months earlier than expected while waitlists for semi-urgent elective surgeries will be halved with budgeting for an extra 8,000 paediatric surgeries.
the NSW government is also currently reviewing security measures at hospitals.
It’s expected the review will find some aspects of security in hospitals lacking and lead to more robust measures to better protect staff and patients after a spate of violent incidents at health facilities.
One thing not to expect at the state’s hospital over the next four years is privatisation with Premier Gladys Berejiklian ruling that out.
Aside from next staffing, the vast majority of hospitals are also earmarked for some type of renovation — whether it’s building entire new wards or renovating ageing facilities.
Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital was one of the biggest winners of the Berejiklian government’s election promises, with $1.3 billion pledged to revamp the facility.
Planning for this project and early construction work will start in the next four years but a $25 million expansion of the emergency department will be unveiled next year.
John Hunter Hospital, in Newcastle, was also given a huge chunk of funding during the election campaign with $780 million set aside for redevelopments that will deliver better emergency services, care cancer and more surgical space.
On the North Coast the building of the contentious new Tweed Hospital will plough ahead.
The coalition’s election campaign was plagued by a Labor-fuelled scare campaign over the new hospital, which is being built at Cudgen, but with voters re-electing National MP Geoff Provest the government has a clear mandate to forge ahead with the project as planned.
Meanwhile parents struggling to conceive children will have access to cheaper IVF as well as a $500 rebate for fertility testing.
An extra 6000 women will be able to access discount IVF in Sydney hospital.
Within the next four years work will start on 29 new health building projects across NSW:
► Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital —$1.3 billion redevelopment.
► John Hunter Hospital — $780 million redevelopment.
► Royal Prince Alfred Hospital — $750 million redevelopment.
► Sydney Children’s Hospital Westmead — $619 million redevelopment.
► Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick and Comprehensive Children’s Cancer Centre — $608 million redevelopment.
► Ryde Hospital — $479 million redevelopment.
► Shoalhaven Hospital — $434 million redevelopment.
► St George Hospital — $385 million redevelopment.
► Griffith Base Hospital — $215 million redevelopment.
► Eurobodalla Hospital — $150 million new hospital.
► Manning Base Hospital — $100 million redevelopment.
► Sutherland Hospital — $81 million redevelopment.
► Ballina District Hospital — $80 million redevelopment.
► Moree Hospital — $80 million redevelopment.
► Cowra Hospital — $70 million upgrade.
► Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital — $65 million upgrade.
► Bowral Hospital — $55 million redevelopment.
► Gunnedah Hospital — $53 million redevelopment.
► Liverpool Hospital Car Park — $50 million investment.
► Albury Hospital — $45 million redevelopment.
► Concord Hospital Car Park — $32 million investment.
► Goulburn Base Hospital— $30 million redevelopment.
► Dubbo Hospital Car Park — $30 million investment.
► Shellharbour Hospital Car Park — $23 million investment.
► Glen Innes Hospital — $20 million upgrade.
► Iluka Ambulance Station — $10 million investment.
► Mona Vale Hospital — $10 million upgrade.
► Deniliquin Hospital — $3.2 million upgrade.
► Leeton Hospital — $2.5 million upgrade.
COST OF LIVING
NSW residents will enjoy hip-pocket relief through a range of cost of living measures being implemented by the Berejiklian government which will slash public transport costs and make it cheaper for parents to enrol their kids in sport.
The Coalition will double the popular Active Kids program to provide two separate $100 vouchers per child from July this year. The vouchers can be used to cover registration, participation and membership costs for children’s’ sport.
Rail commuters travelling commuting long distances stand to save as much as $686 a year when the Coalition to bring the maximum weekly Opal cap down from $63.20 to $50.
It will also be cheaper for families to invest in renewable energy, with the Coalition to provide interest-free loans for up to 300,000 homes to install solar energy and battery storage systems over the next decade.
Meanwhile, future tradies and people working in skills-shortage areas will be able to access free training courses. The government will offer 100,000 additional no-cost TAFE and VET courses over the next four years.
Cost of living reforms introduced by the Coalition since early 2017 have saved NSW residents more than $2 billion in just over two years.
There are currently more than 40 measures on offer through Service NSW including free car registration for regular toll users, CTP Green Slip refunds and energy rebates.
Ms Berejiklian made cost of living a central part of her campaign platform, promising to “take pressure off families”.
THE BREAKDOWN
► Maximum weekly Opal costs to be capped at $50 down from $63.20
► No-interest loans for households to install solar energy and battery storage systems
► Doubling Active Kids: 2 x $100 voucher for school students to help cover the cost of sport, fitness and recreation
► 10 new Service NSW centres and four one-stop Service NSW buses
► Senior Savers card to give discounts on products and services to residents over the age of 60
► $250 travel card to help with travel costs for seniors living in rural and regional parts of the state
► An additional 100,000 free TAFE and VET courses.
► $173 million for the Taxi Transport Subsidy Scheme to support people with disabilities
SOCIAL ISSUES
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Tuesday said she wanted to move beyond the exhaustive list of infrastructure projects underway and focus on social issues.
Already on Ms Berejiklian’s agenda for the next four years of government is getting to work on halving homelessness.
The government has set the lofty goal of halving homelessness by 2025 but the first task is assessing how many people sleep rough in NSW as there is currently no definitive figure. Addressing ice addiction is also a top social issue for the next term, with rural towns crippled by the drug to be visited by experts who will try to devise new strategies to stop the scourge. De-criminalising abortion is also expected to be an important social issue that both sides of politics will likely have to confront in the next term.
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