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The Minns Labor Government is helping fight urban heat and boost tree canopy in more of NSW with the Greener Neighbourhoods Grant Program being expanded to 10 councils in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven and Hunter-Central Coast.

This means 43 councils from Sydney to Wollongong, Newcastle and everywhere in between can now apply for more than $2.5 million worth of grants to better plan for greening in their communities.

The Greener Neighbourhoods grants can provide up to $60,000 to eligible councils to support strategic planning for urban canopy, heat mitigation, and maintaining green cover.

It is about making sure greenery is not only maintained but expanded as these regions continue to grow and will make sure future investment in urban greening are directed to areas that need it most.

Research shows trees can reduce ground-level temperatures by up to six degrees, while communities with more than 30 per cent canopy cover experience improved mental and physical health outcomes.

The funding is part of the NSW Government’s $60 million Greening our City program which is helping increase tree canopy and biodiversity to reduce the impacts of urban heat and climate change on communities.  

Greener Neighbourhoods is funded from the NSW Climate Change Fund. Applications for the Greener Neighbourhoods grants are now open.  

Councils have until 5pm, Friday 21 August 2026 to apply.  

More information, including application guidelines, is available on the NSW Planning website.

This is another example of the Minns Labor Government building better communities investing in quality green space to support growing neighbourhoods.  

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully said:

“Urban greening delivers real, everyday benefits for communities, from cooler streets to more shade, and better public spaces where people can connect and spend time outdoors.

“The Minns Labor Government has expanded the Greener Neighbourhoods Grant Program to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven and Hunter-Central Coast for the first time to make sure these key growth areas have the tools they need to fight urban heat and boost tree canopy and green cover.  

“These grants will help councils plan for more climate resilient neighbourhoods, complementing the Minns Labor Government’s housing reforms, and helping growing communities stay greener, cooler and more vibrant.” 

The Albanese Labor Government is expanding the Commonwealth Prac Payment to people training in an additional ten key front line health professions. This will provide cost of living relief for students and support our future healthcare workforce.

Unpaid practical placements are a big part of healthcare degrees. For some courses such as radiography, it is more than a year of the degree. For that commitment, many students have to give up paid work and many have to move away from home.

Paid prac provides financial support to help students while they undertake practical training. Paid prac already covers eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students.

The Albanese Labor Government is now expanding it to eligible students studying these ten courses: 

• clinical psychology
• physiotherapy
• occupational therapy
• speech pathology
• paramedicine
• radiography
• pharmacy
• rehabilitation therapies
• audiology
• podiatry

This is another way the Albanese Government is helping with the cost of living in addition to policies such as our 20 per cent cut to student debt, tax cuts for every taxpayer, cheaper childcare and backing wage rises.

Eligible students currently receive $338.60 per week during their clinical and professional placement periods. It is a means tested payment benchmarked to the single Austudy rate and indexed annually.

Paid prac is reducing financial pressure on students and allowing them to spend less time worrying about paying the bills and more time focused on their training.

It helps students doing placements when they have to relocate, including in the bush. Travel, accommodation and relocation costs can discourage students from undertaking placements in regional and remote Australia, where health workforce shortages are often most acute.

The expansion of the Commonwealth Prac Payment will help more students manage these costs, complete their qualifications and move into critical health and care jobs.

Expanding paid prac to more healthcare professions will help to continue building the health workforce Australia needs and strengthen Medicare.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“Paid prac is already making a real difference – it’s helping students with cost of living while they train and that’s why we’re expanding it.

“This is an investment in our future healthcare workforce. We need more of them and this will help more Australians get the qualifications our nation needs.

“We’re backing Australians to get the education they need and this announcement builds on our reduction to student debt, free TAFE and tax cuts that put money back in people’s pockets.”

Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler:

“The Albanese Labor Government is strengthening Medicare by growing the health workforce Australians need.

“Training a domestic health workforce is crucial to ensuring every Australian can access quality health care where and when they need it.

“These are people who are going to look after us when we’re sick or old, helping women during childbirth, helping Australians living with disability.

“This expansion means that if you’re training to be a pharmacist, physio or psychologist, you’ll also now have a bit of extra help to get through.

“This will make a big difference for students doing placements in the bush who face extra costs when they’re training away from home.”

Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“Paid prac is working, that’s why we’re expanding it.

“Paid prac helps to pay the bills, pay the rent and pay for things like petrol and parking.

“Paid prac is making a difference now for students training for some of the most important jobs in our country.

“We’re expanding paid prac so more front line health workers will get that cost-of-living help while they train.

“This will help more students finish their qualifications and move into the jobs the country needs.”

The Australian Greens say the Northern Territory Government pushed through child protection reforms that will do nothing to keep children safer.

The changes were passed to weaken the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle despite expert opposition and a joint statement from Australia’s Child Safety Ministers and the National Commissioner for First Nations Children and Young People.

They clearly state that the principle does not override safety concerns; it recognises that connection to family, community and Country can be critical to keeping Aboriginal children safe.

The laws also ignore priority recommendations of the Webb-Shanahan interim review of the NT child protection system, released yesterday. The review identified systemic failures including inadequate risk assessments, incomplete investigations, workforce shortages and poor responses to family and domestic violence.

Senator Larissa Waters, Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson for First Nations Justice:

“This Act is another example of the NT Government choosing racist dogwhistling over evidence-based policy. They’ve ignored the experts on youth incarceration, housing, the environment and now child safety. 

“The evidence is clear. Weakening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle won’t keep children safe. Fixing chronic failures in the child protection system will.

“The Webb-Shanahan review points to real problems: under-resourcing, workforce shortages, failures to investigate risks and inadequate responses to family and domestic violence. That’s what the NT Government should be focused on.

“Aboriginal women, families and communities have been clear about what works. Keeping children safe requires Aboriginal leadership and self-determination, not political scapegoating.

“Australia is going backwards on Closing the Gap and these changes will make that worse. In the Northern Territory, First Nations children are more than 13 times more likely to be in out-of-home care, and the Territory has the lowest rate of kinship care in the country.

“The Federal Government should consider withholding Closing the Gap funding while the NT Government continues to undermine national commitments and ignore the evidence on keeping Aboriginal children safe.

“These laws were developed in response to the tragic death of Kumanjayi Little Baby. We owe it to her, her family and her community to follow the evidence about how to prevent violence against Aboriginal women and children, not exploit that tragedy to justify laws that experts say will cause more harm.

The ACT Greens are calling for the resignation of Minister for Education Yvette Berry following findings by the ACT Integrity Commission of serious corrupt conduct by her then Chief of Staff and her then Director General of Education. 

“The Integrity Commission’s findings are clear,” ACT Greens Leader Jo Clay says.

“The Commission has found that the conduct of Ms Katy Haire and Mr Josh Ceramidas was ‘of a character that would be likely to threaten public confidence in the integrity of Government or public administration’ – and that both individuals undertook ‘a calculated attempt to cover up the truth.’ The Commission found this amounted to ‘serious corrupt conduct’. 

“At the time of the conduct, Mr Ceramidas was Minister Berry’s Chief of Staff and Ms Haire was the Director General for Education. This represents a serious failure of ministerial accountability and leadership and a breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. Minister Berry cannot continue in her role. 

“Under the ACT Ministerial Code of Conduct, ministers are accountable for their own behaviour and the decisions and actions of their staff. Minister Berry failed in her duty to ensure her Chief of Staff complied with the Code. The Minister is also accountable for her then Director General of Education.

“Canberrans expect and deserve ministers who are accountable for their actions and the actions of those who serve directly under them. These findings expose a serious breach of the standards of accountability and integrity, and a clear betrayal of the community’s trust. We are calling on Minister Berry to do the right thing and resign now. We will call for further accountability measures as we consider this report.”

BACKGROUND

•    The ACT Ministerial Code of Conduct. We draw your attention to paragraphs 3(e) and 5(g).
•    The ACT Greens-Labor Supply and Confidence Agreement for the 11th Assembly. We draw your attention to page 2, which identifies the Greens’ criteria for opposing a Minister’s continued appointment.

The independent Net Zero Commission’s Annual Report released today warns NSW is further away from meeting its legislated emissions reductions targets than it was last year as new coal extensions and data centres put net zero further out of reach.

The Net Zero Commission is calling for stronger planning controls to account for emissions reductions targets in assessment of developments, and has warned that any new coal expansions are incompatible with the state’s binding emissions reductions targets.

Greens MP and Environment Spokesperson Sue Higginson said,“The Net Zero Commission’s striking report reveals that New South Wales is not on track to meet our legislated emissions reductions targets, and that dangerously we are actually getting further away year-on-year,

“Labor Premier Chris Minns went to the last election promising strong action on climate, but instead his Government has approved 11 new coal projects, in contradiction of the climate science and of his own climate legal framework,

“The Net Zero Commission has been unequivocal in its denunciation of the Minns Labor Government’s reckless NSW Coal Industry Strategy, the idea we can approve new coal extensions and expansions whilst reducing coal emissions is a dangerous fiction,

“People are losing trust in our planning system which is allowing so much harm and driving climate pollution emissions up rather than down. It’s clear that the system is structured to deliver for corporate lobbyists, whether it’s the Premier’s mentor Morris Iemma, his Minerals Council friend Stephen Galilee, and the proponents of data centres,

“The Net Zero Commission has been clear that climate impacts must be accounted for as the paramount concern in planning decisions, whether it is coal, gas, data centres or any other kind of development,

“Former Supreme Court Justice Basten has warned that our planning system’s approach to new coal is legally erroneous and contrary to our international obligations, it is time for the Premier to see the writing on the wall and announce an end to new coal and a moratorium on data centres and change the settings,” Ms Higginson said.