The NSW government has flagged a raft of big-ticket spending items for its first budget since winning office with a focus on improving essential services and easing cost-of-living pressure.
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This is what has been announced in the lead up to the budget on Tuesday:
EDUCATION
* A $3.5 billion boost to the education budget will see more than 60 facilities either built or upgraded over the next four years in Sydney's west and southwest, including 15 new public schools
* Teachers will receive a big pay rise, making those in the top and bottom pay brackets the best paid in the country
* $64 million already set aside by the former Coalition government for spending on early childhood education and care will go towards $500 subsidies for parents of three-year-olds
HEALTH
* Four hospitals will share in $3 billion to improve services in Western Sydney, including $400 million to build the new $700 million Rouse Hill Hospital and more than $1 billion to build a new site for the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital
* Study subsidies will be offered to healthcare students worth $4000 a year for new students and a one-off $8000 payment for existing students, with $121.9 million allocated in the budget over five years
* Women's health centres will receive a funding boost of $34.3 million to help increase staff numbers and reduce counselling waitlists
* The government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association to embed staffing levels in the industry award and committed to hire an additional 1200 nurses over the next four years
* $200 million will be spent to sustain out-of-home care throughout 2023-24, supporting vulnerable kids who can no longer live at home, which the government claimed was part of $7 billion in unfunded programs left by the previous government
TRANSPORT
* $1.1 billion will be diverted from other areas of the transport budget to convert the Bankstown rail line into a driverless metro by October 2025
* The state-owned Transport Asset Holding Entity of NSW, which is responsible for managing rail assets, will be made into a not-for-profit entity, estimated to reduce the state's debt by more than $4 billion over the next four years
REGIONAL
* The NSW Reconstruction Authority will get a $115 million boost, taking its total funding to more than $321 million over four years, to help prepare for and clean up in the wake of natural disasters
* The government has scrapped plans to raise the Wyangala Dam wall, near Cowra in the state's central-west, by 10 metres
ENERGY
* The budget will set aside $1.8 billion to build power lines, batteries and other renewable energy infrastructure, including $1 billion to establish an Energy Security Corporation
* Coal royalties will be hiked in NSW for the first time in almost 15 years, forecast to leave the state budget more than $2.7 billion better off across the four years
INVESTMENTS
* It is hoped an overhaul of how NSW manages $108 billion of public money in investment funds will mean debt interest payments drop $1.1 billion over four years, including suspending contributions to the NSW Generations Fund set up by the Coalition
Australian Associated Press
