The NSW Government is promising relief for working families, higher wages for essential workers and better public services “for us all” with its proposed budget for the 2026-27 financial year.

Handed down on Tuesday, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said it is a budget “driven by our people’s concerns”.

“The concerns of our families who today pay more for their mortgages, more for their groceries, more for their fuel, and more every time a bill arrives,” he said.

“The cares of our workers and businesses, who have seen a war on the other side of the world push up the price of oil, and the price of oil push up the price of nearly everything else.

“Today the fate we choose is to go on building the best state for working families.

“We choose to continue building a state working Australians can afford.

Key budget highlights included in the treasurers report are:

• Transport Affordability Package - $100 off vehicle registrations, and $80 off motorbike registrations; $50 toll cap; no increase to Opal fares for 12 months, totalling $561.4 million.

• Health - $10.3 billion to increase health services, including higher wages, 9000 extra health workers and 2900 extra surgeries each year.

• Education - $9.2 billion to help deliver more than 260 new and upgraded schools and co-located early learning, with more than a quarter in regional NSW.

• Domestic violence support - 50 per cent increase in frontline domestic and family violence services, funded by $184.1 million.

• Transport - $6.5 billion to deliver thousands of new electric buses and electric bus depots.

• First home buyers - about 30,000 more first home buyers are expected to access benefit from support programs in the 2026-27 financial year. Since 2023, 94,000 have received an average of $20,400.

• Energy savings - $557.1 million for households to access energy-saving technologies, including $480 million in interest-free loans and $77.1 million in discounts.

For rural and regional areas specifically, Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty said this budget “recognises that access to essential services should not depend on where you live”.

In addition to the registration discounts and home energy saver program highlighted by the Treasurer, Ms Moriarty listed the key initiatives as follows:

• More than $1 billion for biosecurity measures including funding to continue combating pest and weed incursions.

• An additional $16.3 million to bolster existing feral pig and deer control strategies.

• $86.6 million over the next two years in the most comprehensive shark management program in NSW’s history.

• Investing $13.7 million for animal welfare in 2026-27, including grant funding to the RSPCA and Animal Welfare League for enforcement of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

• Land tax exemption grants for land use for primary production - up 23.7 per cent to $3.2 billion

• Primary producer motor vehicle concessions - $24 million - 2025-26

• Fishing licence concessions to pensioners - $9 million - 2025-26

Overall, Mr Mookhey said NSW remains on track to deliver a surplus of $1.1 billion in 2027-28.

He described it as a “remarkable turnaround from the state’s largest ever budget deficit - the $15.3 billion deficit recorded in 2021-22”.

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Saturday, 6th September 2031

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