NSW Labor’s 2025-26 budget, released on June 24, hands subsidies to developers and other private businesses but largely ignores the welfare of workers and the poor.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey projected a $1.1 billion surplus in 2027-28, and said gross debt will fall by $9.4 billion from levels projected in the 2023 pre-election budget.
The Guardian’s Anne Davis described the Labor’s third budget as “careful management, penny-pinching and modest spending” which will “please the ratings agencies, and those who value New South Wales’s AAA rating”.
Under the National Housing Accord, NSW committed to deliver 75,000 new homes each year for the next five years. However, the government’s developer guarantee plan only provides a fraction of that — around 15,000 new homes a year.
Mookhey said he is keen to stimulate private-sector investment in housing and has removed a 12,000 levy on developers for “in-kind infrastructure”. Labor will become a guarantor for developers wanting subsidies to build new mid- and low-rise housing projects, especially in transport-oriented development areas. It has been estimated that this helps guarantee pre-sales for up to $1 billion of housing projects.
Karen Brown from Action for Public Housing told Green Left that while new housing is needed “Labor is ignoring the working poor, who are who are ineligible for social housing, but can’t afford anything else due to the cost-of-living crisis”.
She said handing public money over to developers was “not the answer” and called for public investment in public housing instead.
“Developers continue to build unaffordable dwellings primarily for property investors, not for housing people. Government funding for housing and all public land should be used to build public housing that is perpetually affordable and available to all.”
The health budget includes an extra $12.4 billion to build and upgrade health infrastructure over four years, as well as more funds for care during pregnancy and the first five years of life.
But NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) general secretary Shaye Candish criticised Labor for not tackling the pay disparity with other states and territories.
“The Queensland and Victorian governments are investing in nurses and midwives’ wages to help grow their frontline health workforce, yet we are not seeing this long term planning in NSW,” Candish said.
“Until the government invests in our workforce, more nurses and midwives will continue to flee NSW for better pay and conditions to the north and south.”
The union said Labor has managed to find a billion dollars for the gambling industry but “there's nothing in this week's budget to address fair pay or improved working conditions for nurses and midwives”.
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Michael Whaites said the $83 million for maternity care, including in regional areas, would help, but said better pay and conditions would both attract and retain staff.
“We know sites like Tamworth struggle to recruit to existing positions. Unless we close the pay gaps for our nurses and midwives, they’ll struggle to fill the positions,” he said.
He added that despite acknowledging cost-of-living pressures, Labor has focused on private sector investment and capital works. “It’s important to address housing supply and affordability and to ensure there’s new developments for population and productivity growth, but the government also needs to significantly lift its investment in its biggest public sector workforce.”
Jacqui Mumford, CEO of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, said Labor could be doing more to mitigate climate change. “Getting off coal and gas and scaling up renewable energy will give nature and our climate a fighting chance.”
She said compared to Victoria, NSW is lagging behind on meeting its energy needs from renewable energy. “NSW should be covering every warehouse roof with solar panels, and encouraging investors to put everything into the renewable energy build out.”
NSW Greens’ Treasury spokesperson Abigail Boyd said the budget’s pro-business bias gives big corporations “a free ride” and does nothing to tackle the climate crisis or help NSW transition to 100% renewable energy.
She said it did not deliver on the needed investment in accessible, affordable housing. With no extra funding for frontline domestic violence services, Boyd said, Labor is “pretending to care” about victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence but is instead only funding the court system.
Boyd called on Labor to raise revenue “from those who ought to be paying a fair share — the fossil fuel industry, gambling companies, big banks and the very wealthy”.