ECONOMY
– $8.6 billion deficit in the next financial year
– $102.5 billion expenses in 2021-2022
– Surplus of $466 million is predicted for 2024-2045
– Unemployment is expected to fall to 4.5 per cent by 2024-2025
HEALTH
– $10.8 billion on capital health infrastructure over four years
-$1.1 billion to continue Covid-19 response including vaccine distribution, PPE and pop-up clinics
– $214 for NSW Ambulance including new headquarters, medical jets, 246 intensive care paramedics
– $159.3 million in 2021-2022 to fund services in new hospitals
– $109.5 million over four years to develop 25 youth mental health crisis teams
– $82.8 million over four years for improving palliative care
– $36.4 million over four years for 57 specialists to support regional mental health
– $21.6 million over four years for less invasive TAVI treatment for cardiac patients
– $12.2 million over two years to fund Tresillian
– $8.6 million over four years for 15 LHDs to get movement disorder specialists
– $7.7 million over four years for new behaviour disorder treatments, including ADHD
– $3 million to create LGBTIQ+ health centres
EDUCATION
– $7.9 billion on new and upgraded schools overs four years
– $2.6 billion to support new tertiary job training inckuding $268 in capital spend
– $1 billion for new and upgraded regional schools
– $196.6 million for a new curriculum
– $185 million on targeted education services for First Nations Students
– $125 million for more teachers through the Teacher Supply Strategy
INFRASTRUCTURE
– $12 billion over four years for Sydney Metro West
– $3.1 billion over four yeas for more trains and more services program
– $2.7 billion over four years for M6 stage 1
– $2 billion over four years for the Great Western Highway upgrade
– $1.9 billion over four years for WestConnex
– $1.3 billion over four years for new Intercity Mariyung Fleet
– $1.3 billion over four years for Northern Road and M12.
– $717.9 million over four years for better public transport customer experience
– $683.5 million over four years for road safety
– $588.1 million over four years for new buses, bus routes and low-emission transport fleet
– $168.7 million over four years to continue work on Muswellbrook bypass and improve New England Highway
-$115.6 million for construction of Henry Lawson Drive and to continue stage 2 development between Keys Parade and M5
– $50 million over three years for Parramatta Light Rail stage 2 development
COST OF LIVING
– $333.2 million to reduce energy bills including rebates and vouchers
– $246.3 million to extend Regional Seniors Travel Card for two more years
– $150 million to continue free preschool funding to save families $4000 per year, per child
– $43.9 million over two years to fund $100 swimming lesson vouchers for kids aged 3-6
– $14.2 million to promote and and extend Cost of Living program
SOCIAL SERVICES
– $259.6 million for affordable housing for Indigenous communities
– $57 million over two years to help rough sleepers find housing and support
– $52.4 million in 2021-2022 for Aboriginal Community Housing Investment Fund
– 5 days of paid leave for women who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth
– $43.7 million for targeted health services for Indigenous Australians, particularly regional areas.
– $41 million to expand Stolen Generation Reparations Scheme
– $34.1 million for planning and infrastructure upgrades for upto 10 additional Aboriginal communities
– $33.9 million over four years to roll out specialist domestic violence support statewide
– $30 million over four years for social impact investment focused on disadvanataged women and Indigenous youth
– $12 million over four years to boost adoption and guardianship rates
– $11.6 million to support Aboriginal families with complex needs.
ENVIRONMENT
– $700 million over four years to transform waste management
-$490 million to incentivise the take up of electric vehicles
– $193 million over five years to double the number of koalas by 2050
– $140 million for bushfire and flood waste management and clean-up
– $80 million for walking tracks in national parks
– $75 million over five years to protect threatened species
– $26 million over two years to implement land management and biodiversity conservation framework
NSW Budget 2021: The final verdict
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has delivered his fifth budget, with an $8.6 billion deficit in the next financial year. Read our budget recap.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has praised this year's budget as one that delivers for workers across the state.
She dismissed claims from Opposition Leader Chris Minns that the budget will leave working families worse off.
"The people of NSW know that this budget is for them," Ms Berejikian said.
"It's about jobs, it's about infrastructure, it's about services."
Thank you for reading our live blog today.
Updates
What's in the budget
Increased cyber security projects, a ‘digital patient record’ and an online platform for construction certification registries are among new measures made possible by a $500 million budget boost for digital services
The state budget revealed that $1 billion would be spent in 2021-22 for “digital leadership and innovation in government services”.
Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello’s “Digital Restart Fund” will get an extra $500 million over three years, while $660 million will be spent upgrading the communications network used by emergency services.
“The Department of Customer Service will also see a $130 million funding boost, the lion’s share of which will go towards the work of Service NSW which has been a leading light for citizens and businesses throughout the pandemic,” Mr Dominello said.
The Digital Restart Fund’s budget will increase to $2.1 billion.
Budget surprises: Bigger deficit, border delay fallout
– John Rolfe
The state’s deficit is set to get bigger instead of smaller, and a further delay in the international border reopening could knock nearly one per cent off the size of the economy.
These are arguably the two of the most surprising bits of fresh fiscal information in another big-spending pandemic-era state budget.
Treasury now forecasts NSW to be $8.6 billion in the red next financial year, compared to its November 2020 prediction of a $6.8 billion deficit in 2021-22.
Expenses are tipped to be $8 billion higher, at $102.5 billion. These extra costs include rebates for struggling small businesses, more generous pay increases for nurses, police and other public servants, as well as increased health spending.
“This pandemic is not over,” Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said. “It’s an evolving situation. We are continuing to invest where it matters. Down the track, that will get the budget back into the position it needs to be.”
Treasury: Sydney house price boom to peak in 2021
– Jonathan Chancellor
The great Sydney house price boom is tipped by NSW Treasury to peak in late 2021, with house prices having surged by over 20 per cent during the pandemic.
Residential prices are forecast to remain “materially higher” over the next four years.
While no price collapse is forecast, sales activity is forecast to come off the boil, partly because the elevated prices will have “priced out more potential buyers.”
There were a record 23,000 sales in March across NSW, up on the 16,000 average of the past four Marchs.
Treasury did warn “a risk has emerged more recently with the potential for macroprudential policy tightening in response to soaring house prices.”
“The risk of prudential tightening is not insignificant,” it noted.
Stamp duty revenues could drop by $735 million in the next year if prices were to fall by 10 percent.
While Treasurer Dominic Perrottet described Sydney as the “confidence capital of Australia,” his departmental forecasters acknowledged the international economic recovery would remain “precarious” while ever the pandemic is ongoing.
The budget papers forecast stamp duty will peak in the upcoming budgetary year at $11.4 billion. It is up from the surprise $9.3 billion windfall in the current year, and almost double the $6.9 billion in 2020.
However due to the bring forward in buying, the next three years will see stamp duty revenues fall to initially $10.9 billion, then $10.1 billion, and back to $9.2 billion by 2024-25.
Prescription monitoring given $37 million
– Angira Bharadwaj
Real time prescription monitoring to track medications at high-risk of addictions will be rolled out as part of the government's $500 million investment in digital health.
More than $37 million will be invested in creating a network for real time prescription monitoring.
The funding should help tackle the more than 1000 deaths per year from prescription opioid overdose – a stubborn trend that has remained the same over recent years.
$100 for swimming lessons, sport ground upgrades
– by James O'Doherty
Families with preschool-aged kids will get $100 a year per child to go towards swimming lessons, while hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent upgrading local sporting grounds as part of the state budget.
The measures are part of the government’s focus on saving families money and making life easier.
Almost $44m will be spent over two years on vouchers for kids swimming lessons – $100 per year for children aged three to six who are not enrolled in school.
The program will “save families money, and it will save lives as well,” Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said.
Building female change rooms will be the main focus of the $200m investment in local sporting facilities over two years.
The money will “make access to local sporting facilities more equitable” and will fund “upgrades to equipment like playing surfaces and lighting,” Mr Perrottet said.
In a further cash injection for local infrastructure, the government will tip $18.6m extra over two years into the Community Building Partnerships Program, equivalent to an extra $100,000 for every electorate.
Regional seniors will also continue to get hip pocket relief with the government extending the Regional Seniors Travel Card. Mr Perrottet declared he would extend the program after experiencing a “road to Damascus” conversion.
Meanwhile, women working in the public sector who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth will be able to access up to five days of leave.
From next month, public servants will get extra “premature-birth leave” meaning the clock on parental leave won’t start ticking down until the day their baby would have been full-term.
Half a million vouchers will also give NSW residents up to $100 to spend on Friday lunches in the CBD, in a targeted expansion of the ‘Dine and Discover’ program, for which almost 9 million vouchers have been redeemed so far.
Dominic Perrottet highlights family focus
– by James O'Doherty
Cost of living measures and announcements to support families are at the centre of the State budget.
“We are investing where it matters, we are supporting families,” Mr Perrottet said.
“This is a budget with families at its heart.”
“We will take this State from recovery to reform for your family and your future,” Mr Perrottet said in his speech to Parliament.
$466m surplus predicted in 2025-25
– by Anna Caldwell
The budget outlines decreasing deficits over the next three years with a surplus projected in 2024-25.
While the budget posts a slimmer deficit for 2020-21, down to 7.9B, the 2021-22 deficit is in a worse than predicted position, out to $8.6B, but tracks the way to a thin $466m surplus in 2024-25.
Net debt is tracked to climb to an eye-watering $104 billion or 13.7 per cent of GSP in 2024-25. The Treasurer insists this is on track to return to 7 per cent of GSP.
Crucially the budget notes the risk of a slow vaccine rollout or further delay in international borders opening.
“A further one year delay in opening of the international border could see the economy 0.9 percentage point smaller and the unemployment rate 1 percentage point higher by 2022-23,” the budget papers state.
It also warns “uncertainty about the effectiveness of vaccines against new variants could also affect the confidence of governments to reopen their economies”.
The budget papers note geopolitical tensions with China remain a risk, saying there is potential for further escalation causing trade outlook problems.
It also identified the new risk of macro prudential policy tightening in response to soaring house prices to avoid a deterioration in lending standards.
$104 billion net debt by 2024
– by Anna Caldwell
A spendathon to help families and the economy recover from the pandemic will leave the state to face an eye-watering $104 billion in net debt by 2024.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet announced a string of sweeteners for NSW with no new savings plan as he continues to prioritise stimulus and the economy over the budget position.
There are some improvements to the budget position, thanks to bigger than expected receipts from GST, stamp duty and payroll tax to the tune of an extra $23 billion.
“From the deepest recession in our lifetime, we are back to growth and back on track,” Mr Perrottet said.
Against a backdrop of consumer spending rebounding 15 per cent, dwelling investment up 18 per cent and economic activity back to pre-covid levels, Mr Perrottet declared the budget offered “more cost of living support than any state budget in the history of our nation”.
This equates to $470 million in new cost of living measures, including a $100 learn to swim voucher for every pre-school aged child in a program worth $44 million.
There is also a fresh focus on local sport communities with $450 million invested for new and improved sport facilities across the state and programs for health and activity.
This combines with already announced $100 lunch vouchers for CBD diners and special miscarriage and paternity leave all to make the lot of families better.
The budget also posts a record investments in health and education, including the extension of free pre-school.
There is also a further plan to upskill 246 paramedics for intensive care services and a new state of the art operations centre as they stare down a war over pay.
The infrastructure pipeline spend increases to $108 billion with record spend on schools, $1.15 billion to build the Bradfield City Centre, $1.3 billion for the Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital redevelopment and $2.7 billion for the M6 extension stage 1.
There is $8 million set aside to develop a final business case for the suburban stadiums strategy, with a goal to commence construction of one ground by 2023.
NSW has recovered more than 300,000 jobs since the height of the pandemic, with a return to full employment expected by 2024-25.
Rappers’ prison brawl ‘linked’ to drive-by shooting: Police
Police have linked a drive-by shooting to an alleged prison fight between two rappers. CCTV footage from the night of the shooting has been released.
New survey: 90pc of parents demand action on social media
Parents have overwhelmingly backed age limits stopping kids accessing social media until they hit 16, according to a state government survey of more than 21,000 people.