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Sydney’s Blackwattle Bay has taken a major step forward with an Expressions of Interest process opened today, seeking a development partner to renew a 3.6 hectare parcel of government-owned land currently home to the Sydney Fish Market.

The NSW Government will also seek to increase the residential housing on the site to help address the states housing crisis. Previously the land-use controls were to have roughly 50% commercial and 50% residential, the new controls will aim to change this to about 30% commercial and 70% residential, adding approximately 300 additional homes.

Partnering with the private sector will enable the NSW Government to deliver high quality public places, including a foreshore promenade, and more than 3 hectares of public open space. Revenue generated from securing a development partner will go directly to NSW Treasury to fund the delivery of the state’s housing initiatives.

Importantly, the 30,000 square metres of public domain will be prioritised for delivery, with a planning determination for the new 1.1 hectare Bank Street Park expected shortly.

This project is the last piece of the Blackwattle Bay puzzle, a 10-hectare precinct bookended by the new Sydney Fish Market and the new Bank Street Park under the Anzac Bridge.

Showcasing the Minns Labor Government’s commitment to building better communities for NSW. As part of the renewal, access to and from the area will be improved with the future Pyrmont Metro Station nearby, while new parks, walkways, cycleways, and a generous 20-30 metre wide foreshore promenade will complete a 15-kilometre continuous harbourside walk between Woolloomooloo and Rozelle Bay.

Expressions of Interest are now open for qualified and experienced developers to help deliver this world-class precinct, with submissions closing on 19 August 2024. Find out more information about the Blackwattle Bay Precinct.

Minister for Lands and Property Steve Kamper:

“We are starting work on the last piece of the Blackwattle Bay puzzle. The NSW Government is focused on delivering housing and building communities.”

“Blackwattle Bay will provide much-needed housing supply, while unlocking the economic and social potential of the area and creating thousands of jobs.”

“Once complete, the precinct will be connected to a range of local public transport options, public open space and the iconic new Sydney Fish Market which is expected to welcome over 6 million visitors per year.”

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform Blackwattle Bay into a lively world-class waterfront precinct alongside Sydney’s harbour, for all to enjoy.”

A missing link on the popular new Alfred Street walking and cycling path will be filled, thanks to a $5.3 million investment from the Minns Labor Government.

It comes as testing on Parramatta Light Rail officially passes the halfway mark, which, combined with the new Alfred Street walking and cycling link, will secure smoother and more connected journeys in the growing CBD than ever before.

Once complete, the safe separated cycleway will connect students from Rosehill Public and Maronite College of the Holy Family to the new Alfred Street Bridge, a $19 million connection across the Parramatta River.

The project includes new trees, to keep people walking and cycling cool in summer, and lighting upgrades to ensure crossing points and the path remain safe at night.

The investment is part of a $60 million Get NSW Active grants round, launched today by the NSW Government.

It features two key construction projects in Parramatta and design funding for a third. A total of 37 projects across Greater Sydney have received $35.1 million in funding. An additional $24.9 million has been allocated to design and build new projects in regional NSW.

Passengers in Western Sydney are a step closer to using their new active transport links to pedal over the Parramatta River and wheel their bike onto a 45-metre-long light rail vehicle, which come equipped with 4 bike spots.

The Parramatta Light Rail testing milestone means the project is on track to welcome passengers in the coming months.

Up to eight trams are being tested at a time, seven days a week, with the performance of each vehicle being monitored closely while drivers get familiar with the alignment, including when crowds are heading to major events at CommBank Stadium.

The trams are travelling along the full alignment from Carlingford to Westmead, stopping at all 16 stops and crossing 23 intersections. Load testing is now complete, which saw more than 1500 sandbags placed on board to represent the weight of a full load of 400 passengers.

The extensive testing and commissioning program started in December 2023 to ensure the vehicles and network are functioning safely and reliably.

The community is reminded to stop, listen and look around when walking, riding or driving near the light rail.

When the light rail is fully operational, passengers will have access to services approximately every 7.5 minutes in peak periods.

This is all part of the Minns Labor Government’s plan to build better communities for NSW. To ensure we’re creating and building on well-connected, well-serviced neighbourhoods.

A plan to build a better NSW.

For more information, visit the Parramatta Light Rail webpage.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen MP:

“It’s all happening in Parramatta.

“Tram testing has passed 50% mark and will add to the growing number of ways people can travel around the Parramatta CBD.

“While Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 gets closer to completion, other projects are now underway. Our investment in the Alfred Street walking and cycling link will make it safer and easier for kids and families to ride their bikes.

“The bicycle spots in the new trams will make it easier for people to mix up the way they travel, so you can pedal from home to the nearest light rail stop, then roll straight onto the tram.

“It’s exciting seeing all of this work becoming a reality, I can’t wait to test ride the Alfred Street cycle link when all the work is complete.”

Member for Parramatta Donna Davis MP:

“As our city grows, it’s great to see government investment in public and active transport is keeping pace.

“In the coming months, Parramatta will be transformed by the new light rail, plus the investment announced today means it’ll be easier for more people to walk and cycle across our city too.

“Our new walking and cycling paths are already so popular, I can’t wait to see how many people put on their walking shoes or start pushing pedals when they all finally link together.”

Parramatta Lord Mayor Pierre Esber:

“We are a step closer to seeing the first passengers travelling on trams in the heart of our City and we’re very excited that Parramatta Light Rail will soon be operational.

“This is a huge win for our community – it means more people can connect to the heart of Greater Sydney with these new transport connections – so people can hop on a bike to get to work, school or for leisure.

“I thank Transport for NSW and their support through the Get NSW Active Program to help create more active transport routes across our City.”

The NSW Labor Government is committed to delivering a permanent high school close to home for the people of Bungendore, with the amended State Significant Development (SSD) application now lodged and on public exhibition for community feedback.

The proposal, which the Department of Education (the Department) submitted to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) on June 13, 2024, identifies the Majara / Gibraltar Streets Precinct as the preferred location, the same site put forward in the original SSD application lodged in September 2021.

In parallel, the Department is also considering alternative site locations as part of due diligence work to ensure a new high school for the Bungendore community can be delivered as quickly as possible.

While the Majara / Gibraltar Streets Precinct remains the preferred site for the new school, the Department will undertake a due diligence review on alternative locations to validate that the Majara / Gibraltar Streets Precinct remains the fastest and most viable location.

In addition, the Department is continuing to review its analysis of projected demand to ensure community needs can be met.

The Department continues to work alongside the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) to consider how the features of the project that are on Crown Land, and excluded from the amended SSD, can be delivered for the Bungendore community.

The amended SSD application includes plans to deliver modern facilities to accommodate approximately 450 students, with options for future expansion to accommodate enrolment growth.

The community is encouraged to have their say on the amended SSD application from Tuesday 25 June until Monday 22 July 2024.

Find out more about the SSD application and make a formal submission 

Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:

“The NSW Labor Government is committed to delivering a permanent public high school in Bungendore to provide world-class learning facilities close to home.

“After the Liberals and Nationals’ poor planning let this community down, we are looking at everything we can do to deliver the permanent high school as quickly as possible.

“This will ensure the best possible outcomes for students, staff, families, and the broader Bungendore community.”

Member for Monaro, Steve Whan said:

“Families in the Bungendore community deserve to have a permanent high school to send their kids to, but legal battles around this project have caused too much uncertainty around when this school will be built.

“I recognise the huge frustration this gives to many people who want to see the school built and I recognise the division this project has caused in the community.

“I have urged the Department to look at alternative sites to validate that the current site remains the fastest and most viable location, and I am pleased that this process is underway.

“Given the time lost, it is imperative that further analysis on enrolment projections is underway to ensure the school is the right size for the community now and into the future.

“We will continue to work to deliver a permanent Bungendore High School for our local families as soon as possible.”

The NSW Government is investing more than $2.6 million to deliver seven women’s health, wellbeing and empowerment projects from 2024-2027 as part of the statewide Investing In Women Funding Program. 

Through this program, the NSW Government is working in partnership with community organisations to improve women’s economic opportunity and advancement, health and wellbeing and participation – the three priority areas of the NSW Women’s Strategy.

The innovative projects that received a share of the 2023-2024 funding include:

• Contact – The ‘Empowering Far Western NSW Women: Building a Brighter Future Together’ project will allow women and girls who are isolated in remote or rural NSW, to feel a greater sense of connection through a series of co-designed in-person and virtual workshops, training sessions, community renewal days and practical supports.
• Dress for Success Sydney – With the development of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis driving increased demand for employees, the new Dress for Success (DFS) hub will be a place for local women to attend in person to access DFS services. DFS will support local women and girls with finding new work opportunities and training in softer skills.
• Generation Australia – Women from western and south-western Sydney from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds will be provided a pathway into care work through holistic pre-employment programs. Mentorship and employment support will help participants to upskill, build confidence, and improve career outcomes.
• Girls on Fire – ‘The Fire UP – Girls Fire and Resilience’ project is an experiential learning program for teenage girls in regional and remote areas providing qualifications, confidence, and clear pathways to join the emergency services sector.
• Her Futures Foundation – The ‘Her Futures Wellbeing’ project is designed to reduce the major health concerns among Aboriginal women in Kempsey through a tailored health and wellbeing group program.
• NSW Council for Intellectual Disability – The ‘My Relationships Matter’ project focuses on enhancing the health literacy of women and girls with intellectual disability and empowering them to make informed decisions, leading to changes in health, relationships, and communities.
• Western Sydney University – The ‘WARDA-NSW: Women’s Awareness in Reproductive “Aafiya”’ project is a co-designed, peer-mentored, empowering reproductive health promotion program for Muslim women to generate a community wide conversation on reproductive health.

Commencing in 2024, the Her Futures Foundation’s health and wellbeing project will have a total funding of $550,000 to help tackle major health concerns among women in Kempsey. The foundation will deliver a 12-week group program of facilitated fitness and healthy lifestyle sessions to improve fitness, self-care, guided access to services and social participation for local women.

Since its inception, the successful Investing in Women grant has funded 131 projects to advance the role, status and contribution of women and girls in NSW communities. Between 2013 to 2023, over $3.8 million was invested in programs enhanced women’s economic opportunities, health, and leadership in NSW.  

Minister for Women Jodie Harrison said:

“The Investing in Women Funding Program has supported more than 100 organisations since its inception to improve the lives of women and girls, and deliver on the NSW Women’s Strategy 2023-2026.

“This program will enable women to not only take tangible steps towards achieving their personal aspirations but also pave a permanent pathway for future generations of women.

“The NSW Government is pleased to be partnering with these 7 organisations which are best placed to address targeted communities where improvement is needed to uplift and preserve women’s presence and participation in society.”

CEO of Real Futures (partner of Her Futures Foundation) Christianna Cartwright said:

“Our project has the potential to make the entire community stronger as they see Aboriginal Women become confident, healthy leaders in their respective families and communities. These women will become strong role models for their children and set a benchmark for adolescent Aboriginal girls in our community.

“Aboriginal women will be provided an opportunity to work on themselves in all aspects of their lives in a safe, supported environment, and build strength in knowing they are not alone with their day-to-day life and health challenges. Women will have the opportunity to grow stronger, fitter and healthier, learning better eating and exercise habits and being connected to culture.”

Find out more about the projects and the Investing in Women Funding Program

See the NSW Women’s Strategy

Business owners across NSW can access a range of free, in-language support to help navigate government services and boost their business.

The Service NSW Business Bureau connects eligible small businesses with independent advisors who speak a second language, such as Mandarin, Vietnamese and Arabic, and understand the local economy.

Advisors have experience running their own business and can offer tailored advice on essential topics such as business planning, marketing and cash flow.

When a business needs guidance on how to start a business, navigating government, or help understanding licences and permits, they can speak to a Business Concierge over the phone or in person.

For in-language assistance business owners can call the National Translating and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50 and ask them to call a Service NSW Business Concierge on 13 77 88.

The service provides immediate phone interpreting. The interpreter will transfer the call to a Service NSW Business Concierge who has been specially trained to work with translator services.

Get more information about the Service NSW Business Bureau or call 13 77 88.

Minister for Small Business Steve Kamper:

“The Service NSW Business Bureau is proud to be doing what we can to support business owners in our multicultural communities to survive and thrive.”

“We understand how valuable our multicultural communities are to both the local economy and in enriching our culture.”

“To ensure as many business owners as possible can benefit from the Service NSW Business Bureau, the website can be translated into 70 different languages so everyone can take advantage of the services available to them.”

Quotes attributable Service NSW Business Bureau Multicultural Business Relationship Specialist, Halimeh Tobbie:

“Many new business owners and newly arrived refugees embarking on an entrepreneurial journey feel a sense of relief knowing there is free support and guidance available through the Service NSW Business Bureau.”

“I am proud of the work I have been doing with business owners and aspiring business owners to help refer them to our Business Concierge and business advisory services.”

New business owner Basema Odisho said:

“I moved from my hometown in Syria to Australia about a year ago with a dream of starting my own alcohol distillery business and the Service NSW Business Bureau has been incredibly helpful and supportive in getting my feet off the ground.”

“Halimeh from the Service NSW Business Bureau was very helpful in directing me to the right people as she speaks in language and can translate. This helped me to set up an ABN and register my business.”

The legislation is part of a package of commonsense reforms to target possession of knives, particularly among young people, reduce knife crime and boost community safety.

Under the new legislation, a senior police officer of the rank of Assistant Commissioner or above can turn on wanding powers to be used in a designated areas including:

• Public transport stations.
• Public transport vehicles within two scheduled stops of a designated public transport station.
• Shopping precincts.
• Certain sporting venues.
• Other public places, designated by regulation, including special events and places that are part of the night-time economy.

This will mean that, compared to Queensland’s ‘Jack’s Law’, NSW will have more designated areas and more flexibility to capture places in which events are held, such as the Royal Easter Show and entertainment areas.

The authority will last for 12 hours, with an option to extend as required.

Police can “wand” any person in a designated area and may request that person produce a metal object, if detected. Failure to comply may result in a maximum penalty of a fine of $5500.

Importantly, wanding powers can be turned on for areas where there have been issues related to knife crime or knife possession offences where one of the following have occurred in the last 12 months:

• At least 1 offence committed by person armed with knife or weapon.
• At least 1 serious indictable offence involving violence.
• More than 1 offence of knife possession or prohibited weapon possession.

In addition to wanding provisions, the legislation will also make it illegal to sell knives to a child under the age of 18, with exemptions for retailers selling to young people who need a knife for their work or study, as well as increasing penalties for people selling knives to young people under the age of 18.

The package of reforms will help address knife-related crime, get knives off streets and keep the community safer.

The reforms build upon responsible action taken by the NSW Government over the last year including:

• Doubling of the maximum penalties for various knife related offences in 2023.
• Ongoing review by the NSW Sentencing Council into sentencing for firearms, knives, and other weapons offences.
• Ongoing high impact NSW Police operations such as “Operation Foil” – an ongoing, targeted operation which last ran from 11-13 April 2024. It targets knife crime and anti-social behaviour with 51 knives/weapons seized and 145 people charged with weapon-related offences.  In the last year alone almost 4000 knives were seized in public places.

Premier Chris Minns said:

“Today we are introducing legislation modelled on new powers for Police to search and detect knives in public spaces, based on Queensland’s Jack’s Law.”

“My hope is that these commonsense reforms stop people from taking a knife into the community and prevent some of the devastating outcomes of knife related violence we have seen in recent months.”

“The NSW Government is committed to tackling knife crime to keep our communities safe, and these reforms send a strong message that knife crime is not tolerated.”

Minister for the Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said:

“Giving police the ability to ‘wand’ or ‘scan’ for knives in designated areas is a proactive step toward ensuring community safety. By detecting and deterring knife possession, we’re not just preventing potential crime, we’re also safeguarding lives.”

“The introduction of legislation inspired by Jack’s Law isn’t just about law enforcement. It’s also about instilling confidence in our community, showing that we’re actively working to keep them safe.”

“These laws mark a crucial shift in our approach to combatting knife crime, especially among our youth. By introducing this legislation, we’re sending a clear message that knife crime will not be tolerated in our community.”

Attorney General Michael Daley said:

“The Government is tackling knife crime and keeping the people of NSW safe.”

“We are sending a clear message that it is a crime to carry a knife and under these new measures, you will face a greater chance of being caught if you carry one.”

“I want to say to young people in particular: Do NOT take a knife with you when you leave home. The chances of being caught by police and ending up with a fine or in a court on possession charges are about to become much higher.”

“It’s not worth the risk.”

The Minns Labor Government will invest an estimated $189 million in a bulk billing initiative to ensure the cost of seeing a GP remains accessible for people across NSW.

The Bulk-Billing Support Initiative will legislate to provide:

• A new ongoing payroll tax rebate for contractor GPs at clinics that meet bulk-billing thresholds.
• A waiver for past unpaid payroll tax liability for contractor GP wages to 4 September 2024.

This initiative will protect bulk billing rates by reducing financial pressures on GP practices so they don’t pass on additional costs to patients and will save clinics from closure.

This will also reduce the strain on the state’s busy hospital emergency departments. NSW Health estimates that a 1% decrease in bulk-billing equates to around 3000 additional emergency presentations.

Once enacted, the NSW Government will give an ongoing payroll tax rebate for contractor GP wages to be provided to clinics with bulk-billing rates above 80% in metropolitan Sydney, and above 70% in the rest of the state.

The Bulk-Billing Support Initiative will help address the significant cost-of-living pressures felt by families and households across NSW. A recent survey revealed that:

• 72% are quite concerned or extremely concerned about the cost of healthcare.
• 48% of adults are cutting back on healthcare appointments due to affordability.
• 37% of parents are cutting back on appointments for their children due to affordability.

For the last 5 years, medical peak bodies have been warning that failure to address the issue could see GPs charge patients as much as an additional $20 per appointment.

This resolves uncertainty around the applicability of payroll tax on contractor GPs, which first arose in 2018 under the previous Liberal-National state government.

The initiative also addresses the unique and unprecedented cost pressures GPs are under after the former Liberal-National Commonwealth Government froze bulk-billing indexation for a decade.

To relieve pressure on GPs, in September 2023, the Minns Labor Government legislated a 12-month pause on payroll tax audits for GP practices and tax penalties and interest accrued on outstanding debts.

Since the pause was enacted, the government worked closely with Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and Australian Medical Association (AMA) to develop the support initiative.

NSW will be the first state to legislate a full retrospective waiver for past unpaid payroll tax liabilities for contractor GP wages. This will save local clinics.

The former Liberal-National Government’s failure on this issue particularly impacted regional and rural GP clinics. In providing a targeted rebate for those clinics, we can protect primary care for families and households in those communities.

Maintaining a consistent approach to payroll tax is an important objective of the NSW Government. The introduction of this support initiative recognises the overriding public interest in GPs delivering care for families and households.

This is part of a budget that will prioritise rebuilding essential services – ensuring we have the essential services the people of NSW rely on and that keeps our communities safe.