NSW budget: Winners and losers from a big spend up

Women, first-home buyers and western Sydney residents came out on top, while public servants and foreigners will be hit in the hip pocket.

Women and childcare were major focuses of the NSW budget. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Women, first-home buyers and western Sydney residents scored in a big-spending budget, most of which had been leaked in advance by a government with an eye on a looming election.

Public servants and foreigners will be hit in the hip pocket, and northern beaches residents will have to put up with traffic hassles for longer.

Winners

• Women: The budget promises to increase the number of women in the workforce – and boost their pay packets – through big investments in childcare, as well as supporting female entrepreneurs. There’s more money for women’s health initiatives such as affordable fertility treatments, and initiatives to deal with domestic violence and make city streets safer.
• Motorists will save up to $750 a year through toll rebates. Drivers will get a 40 per cent rebate after spending $375 every quarter. A scheme that allows free rego for drivers who spend $1352 a year on tolls has been abolished.
• First-home buyers: On a $1m home, first-home buyers can opt to pay an annual $3400 land tax instead of $45,000 upfront in stamp duty. There’s also a shared equity scheme to help 3000 nurses, teachers and police officers enter the housing market, with the government contributing up to 40 per cent for a new property.
• Householders save up to $600 a year on power bills by installing roof-top solar and energy-efficient appliances but power will be more expensive due to a range of factors.
• Parents get a $150 a child back-to-school subsidy towards the cost of uniforms and books. A new program provides up to five days a week low or no-cost pre-kindergarten for children the year before school.

Losers

• Public servants. The government puts its staff in the winners column because it has lifted the wage cap to 3 per cent this year (maybe 3.5 per cent next year) but that’s not how they - or their unions - see it, with inflation at 5 per cent. Some NSW Health staff get a one-off $3000 bonus but say it doesn’t compensate.
• Foreigners. They don’t vote and they haven’t done well in this budget. Foreign investors will have land tax doubled to 4 per cent, generating extra revenue of $294m over four years. Drivers using an overseas driver’s licence will need to pass a NSW driver license test, generating an extra $71m over two years. And foreign-owned online bookies will now be slugged a 15 per cent tax.
• Northern beaches residents: The $6.3bn Beaches Link to (one day) connect Sydney’s northern beaches to the Warringah Freeway has been shelved. In southern Sydney, construction of the second stage of the M6 motorway has been put on ice but the government is moving ahead with $25.9bn for the three stages of the new Sydney Metro line.
• Gambling companies. Hit with 15 per cent tax increases on point of consumption gaming and effective betting in a cash-grab to raise more than $740m.
• Renters: There’s little support for renters and no new social housing projects have been funded to deal with 50,000 families on the waiting list.