NSW budget 2025 as it happened: Treasurer Daniel Mookhey announces historic $1.2b child protection package; flags more homes ‘for a state that sorely needs them’

Whether you’re just joining us on your commute home, or you’ve been with us all day, thanks for following our live coverage of the Minns government’s 2025 NSW Budget.

The headline announcements included a record $1.2 billion investment in child protection, and a $1 billion guarantee scheme for developers of build-to-rent housing.

If you have just a few minutes to digest what the 2025 budget means for you, look no further than our five-minute summary (and our state political editor Alexandra Smith’s TikTok walkthrough below), or read about the winners and losers from this year’s offering.

You can find out what the budget means for western Sydney, or what our expert reporters made of the announcements. Keep an eye out for the verdict you, the people of NSW, gave the budget.

Finally, on a day heavy with fiscal policy, and unfolding conflict in the Middle East, sometimes distraction is welcome. Opposition Treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope said the winners of the budget were “tech billionaires and Hollywood studios”, but it appears not everything is going well for Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, a tech billionaire who owns a Hollywood studio: he has been forced to move his Venice wedding party, after locals threatened to fill the city’s canals with inflatable crocodiles to stop guests arriving.

Thanks once again for your company. See you this time next year!

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s third state budget is a sensible, sober and steady-as-she-goes affair. But it also happens to be his most interesting.

With his first two economic statements largely focused on implementing Labor’s election promises and dealing with an inflation crisis, Mookhey has used this latest budget to give NSW a glimpse of what a “new normal” might look like as COVID-era spending subsides and the state’s infrastructure rollout enters a new phase.

NSW Treasurer NSW Daniel Mookhey and Finance Minister Courtney Houssos speak to Herald editor Bevan Shields and journalists during the 2025 NSW budget lock-up.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

This is not – to Mookhey’s credit – a big-spending budget. He has resisted any temptation to deliver a new cost-of-living relief package, and has curbed the enthusiasm of ministers who have left cabinet’s expenditure review committee over recent months empty-handed. It won’t win him friends in Labor or deliver eye-catching headlines, but it is the right course to chart for the time being.

Read the full editorial on the budget here.

This year’s budget also includes a boost in funding for firefighting and bushfire prevention efforts.

NSW Fire and Rescue has been given an additional $42.2 million to operate a new 24-hour fire station.

The NSW budget includes a 10-fold increase to relief and recovery payments since the deadly Black Summer bushfires.Credit: Nick Moir

The NSW Rural Fire Service will gain an additional $34.4 million to secure aircrafts and helicopters to help protect regional communities.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has been given more money for fire management and firefighting. This includes $3.724 million for firefighting management, $8.659 million in additional firefighters and fleet, and $19.969 million for the strategic fire trails network.

As we reported this morning, NSW faces unprecedented spending pressures as a result of worsening natural disasters, with a 10-fold increase to relief payments since the Black Summer bushfires six years ago.

The NSW government has spent $9.5 billion on disaster recovery across the state in the period following the devastating summer fires of 2019.

Unsurprisingly, the NSW opposition isn’t a fan of NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s third budget.

NSW Liberal Leader Mark Speakman criticised the lack of cost of living measures and said the housing measures wouldn’t go far enough.

NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the government’s housing measures wouldn’t be enough to deliver 377,000 homes.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Speakman made the point that the pre-sale finance guarantee to developers is only expected to deliver up to 15,000 new homes, when the government is tasked with delivering 377,000 new homes under the national targets.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope said “tech billionaires and Hollywood studios” were winners, while “families and communities” were losers in the budget.

He’s referring to the $100 million fund that will be used to search for a home for Sydney’s second film studio, and the new Investment Delivery Authority that will fast-track private investment projects (like AI data centres).

A new feature of this year’s budget is a performance and wellbeing statement that maps progress on the government’s key priorities.

Data on state school teacher vacancies was included after $1.9 billion was allocated in 2023 over four years to fund historic teacher wage rises.

1779 teachers quit their positions in 2024, down from 1854 in 2022.Credit: Steven Siewert

While salaries increased, public schools have struggled with slashed budgets as enrolments have fallen across the state system. Some schools have cancelled sports and capital programs.

About 1300 teaching positions were vacant in term 1 this year, down from about 2200 at the start of term 1 2022.

However, fresh data from questions on notice from the opposition reveal teacher resignations are still outstripping retirements.

Figures show 1779 teachers quit their positions in 2024, down from 1854 in 2022. About 1014 teachers retired last year, down from 1177 in 2022.

People living in the western half of Sydney comprise about a third of the state’s population – a fact often repeated by advocates who for years have complained that governments have failed to adequately invest in the region.

But after the NSW government handed down its budget for the next financial year, will the tide finally change?

The third of the state’s population who live in western Sydney will see some modest improvements.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

There’s nothing flashy in this budget, one characterised by Treasurer Daniel Mookhey as focusing more on poles and pipes than metros and motorways. But there’s a bit more money for two new schools in the region, and a significant investment in road upgrades, as well as a statewide focus on water infrastructure.

Read the full breakdown here.

Peak bodies and industry experts have started to respond to the Minns government’s third state budget. So far, the reactions have been mixed.

Delia Donovan, the chief executive of Domestic Violence NSW, said the budget provided no new investment in domestic violence services. The 2025-26 budget includes $227 million of counselling and assistance over five years through the Victims’ Support Service, which the Minns government has characterised as new funding.

“Renewing existing contracts is not progress,” said Donovan. “It’s business as usual in the face of a growing domestic violence emergency.”

NSW Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey meet with foster carers and care leavers after a record investment in foster care in this year’s state budget.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Daniel Hunter, chief executive of Business NSW, has described the cost relief for small business as mild, but praised the establishment of the Investment Delivery Authority. “Its focus on innovation, skills, and infrastructure helps set NSW up for long-term growth,” he said.

Australian Medical Association NSW president Kathryn Austin said there was “little meaningful” funding for the state’s “ailing public health system”, criticising a multibillion-dollar spend on hospitals without investment to “grow the health workforce in any meaningful way”.

But Anglicare Sydney has welcomed the budget’s record $1.2 billion investment to overhaul the troubled childcare protection system, and efforts to solve the housing crisis.

“We’re encouraged by the government’s focus on increasing housing supply, and by the recognition of foster carers who provide essential care to vulnerable children,” said chief executive Simon Miller.

What do you make of the plan for the state’s finances this year? Are there any promises you’re particularly pleased about, or any areas you feel have been left out?

Let us know below. Your comments might be published.