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NSW Budget 2024-25: New and More Reliable Public Tra

The Minns Labor Government is building better communities with city-shaping projects that are supporting more homes for people across the state.

The 2024-25 NSW Budget invests $22.09 billion to build and improve transport services.

In Western Sydney, $2.1 billion is being provisioned for Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 construction to accelerate the delivery of better-connected communities in Western Sydney. 

This will connect the growing communities in Western Sydney along the 12-kilometre alignment between Ermington, Melrose Park, Parramatta and Olympic Park, and includes:

• 14 new stops between at Camellia and Carter Street, Olympic Park.
• Dedicated 8.5km active transport corridor.
• New river crossings.

The iconic NSW made Tangara trains will also receive critical upgrades, while the Minns Labor Government forges ahead with a Future Fleet Program to return domestic manufacturing to NSW and build the next generation of Tangaras here.

$447 million will keep the current Tangara fleet on the tracks for approximately 12 more years to ensure passengers have safe and reliable services while the new fleet is built.

An additional $17.5 million will fund the Future Fleet Program, developing a Strategic Business Case to build the next generation Tangara fleet here in NSW.

The 2024-25 Budget also commits $75.2 million to the continued reliability, resilience, and future of the rail network across NSW. 

Funding focuses on the key areas of procurement, safety and the workforce, this includes: 

• A new digital train radio system.
• The Illawarra Rail Resilience Plan.

A further $24.7 million will boost bus services in Western Sydney. This will specifically target bus service improvements in areas including Penrith, Mount Druitt, Blacktown, St Marys, Kemps Creek, Eastern Creek and Arndell Park to deliver bus services that communities can rely on. 

$23.8 million is allocated to a State-Wide Medium Term Bus Plan and supporting business case to identify future bus network enhancements. 

The funding also supports service improvements to bus routes in regional areas to improve access to key destinations. 

The reliability of bus services will be improved across the Opal network, with $91 million allocated to a new Bus Transport Management system. This will improve real-time information for passengers and make buses more accessible, with onboard audio and visual next stop information. 

The Minns Labor Government is building better communities by investing a total of $3.5 billion in Climate Change and Energy in the 2024-25 Budget, to ensure we have the reliable, secure energy system we need.

The Minns Labor Government is taking action to help NSW households save on their energy bills by allocating $238.9 million in the 2024-25 Budget for the forthcoming Consumer Energy Strategy.

The Consumer Energy Strategy will support households to upgrade their homes to be more energy efficient and cheaper to run, which will also make them more comfortable to live in year-round.

Key Budget Allocations

• $128.5 million over two years to upgrade roads and infrastructure from Port of Newcastle to Renewable Energy Zones in regional NSW, enabling transportation of critical components required for the construction of renewable energy infrastructure. The initial road upgrades will prioritize the route to the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone near Dubbo.
• $435.4 million in 2024-25, including a boost of $100 million, to increase the value of energy bill rebates to assist households with the cost of living. This includes $10 million to launch a pilot program providing debt relief for people in critical need.
• $15.8 million allocated to make our energy system safer, more reliable, and better equipped to manage an increase in households investing in new energy-saving technologies. Measures include increasing electrical safety inspections of home energy installations by the NSW Building Commission.
• $87.5 million over four years to make energy-saving upgrades to social housing properties, keeping homes warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
• $39.3 million over seven years to speed up biodiversity assessments for crucial renewable energy and housing projects, supporting the NSW Government’s housing and emissions reduction targets.
• Funding to create the Energy Security Corporation, seeded with $1 billion to accelerate private sector investments in clean energy projects, improving the reliability, security, and sustainability of electricity supply.

Renewable Energy and Environmental Protection Investments

The 2024-25 NSW Budget includes $3.1 billion to help deliver NSW’s Renewable Energy Zones – getting more clean energy into the grid while creating secure jobs for communities across the state.

The Budget includes a total of $2.4 billion for the Environment and Heritage Portfolios, with investments such as:

• $75.1 million to maintain our national parks, boosting nature-based tourism and encouraging more exploration of the almost 900 parks and reserves across NSW.
• $43 million for the Environment Protection Authority to boost the transformation of the waste and recycling industry in NSW, including grants to expand our capacity to recycle plastics and organics and to support other strategic waste infrastructure initiatives.
• $87.5 million for the Environmental Trust to provide grants for restoration and rehabilitation, education, research, and waste activities, benefitting conservation, culture, and tourism.
• Investing in the continuation of the Blue Plaques Program to recognize and celebrate our rich and diverse heritage in NSW.
• Protection of the Butterfly Cave Aboriginal Place with the purchase of land in the Hunter, to be part of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service reserve.

Legislative and Regulatory Actions

The NSW Government is prioritizing work to fix legislation to better protect the environment. In 2024-25, this includes new laws delivering on election promises to fix the biodiversity offsets system and strengthen environmental protections, with reforms to the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.

NSW is accelerating work on the circular economy, including holistic waste infrastructure planning, consultation on the waste levy, and action on plastics.

The Minns Labor Government will deliver up to 30,000 new homes with an unprecedented intervention in the housing market by leveraging surplus government land and public housing construction to build more homes more quickly.

Housing affordability and availability is the biggest single pressure facing the people of New South Wales.

In fact, a US study released just last week has found Sydney is among the least affordable cities in the world.

Without action now, we are at risk of being a city with no young people.

The NSW Labor Government has been working on a comprehensive plan to address the housing crisis.

Having a safe home is foundational to a person’s wellbeing, and the 2024-25 NSW Budget is a blueprint to build the housing the people of New South Wales need.

Building Homes for New South Wales

The NSW Government will deliver up to 30,000 well-located homes, close to infrastructure and transport, with amenities and work opportunities, with surplus land to be made available for housing over the next four years.

The NSW Government has been conducting an audit of government land to identify surplus sites that are suitable for social, affordable or market housing.

This audit has identified an initial 44 sites not being used by government that are suitable for housing.

In many cases these sites have been left unused for years despite being located close to transport and other essential infrastructure.

The Government will make these sites available for housing with Homes NSW and Landcom, the government’s developers, to have the first choice of sites for the delivery of social, affordable, essential worker and market housing.

Other sites will be developed into housing in partnership with the private sector.

The Government will explore options to accelerate the delivery of housing on surplus sites where housing is to be developed in partnership with the private sector.

Measures will be determined on a site-by-site basis and may include streamlined planning processes, conditional contracts of sale or project delivery agreements.

Any proceeds from these sites will be reinvested into new public housing construction.

The locations of these sites will be made public over the coming weeks and months as they are transferred to housing delivery agencies or brought to market.

Building Safe, Affordable and Accessible Homes for New South Wales

The New South Wales Government will invest $5.1 billion to deliver new public housing that will prioritise at least half of the homes built for victim-survivors of family and domestic violence.

This is the biggest investment in public housing in NSW history.

This program will build 8,400 public homes.18,255 people or 38% of those seeking specialist homelessness services in 2022-23 reported family and domestic violence as the main reason they were seeking assistance – higher than any other category – but tragically close to half of those were turned away because of a lack of accommodation support.

In a major step to help those escaping family and domestic violence, the Government will prioritise over 50% of new homes built for women and children fleeing family and domestic violence.

This means, at least 3,100 vulnerable people leaving abusive relationships will have access to a new home under this program.

An additional $1.0 billion will be invested in 33,500 homes for critical maintenance to bring homes back online and prevent disrepair under this program.

The New South Wales Government is also investing over $527.6 million for emergency housing and homelessness support services, supporting vulnerable people in crisis transition into stable housing.

Building Homes for Essential Workers in New South Wales

The New South Wales Government knows that too many suburbs have become unaffordable for our state’s essential workers, like nurses, teachers, police officers, paramedics and firefighters.

This budget includes $650.1 million to build essential worker housing.

This plan includes:

• $450 million for a Key Worker Build-to-Rent Program to be delivered by Landcom across Sydney.
• $200.1 million for key health worker accommodation across rural and regional areas of the state.

Under the Key Worker Build to Rent Program over 400 homes will be built for essential workers in metropolitan Sydney, while approximately 500 health workers will benefit in regional areas of the State.

This program will also support the Minns Labor Government’s election commitment to recruit and retain essential workers.

Building a Better New South Wales

Addressing the housing crisis requires a long-term plan and investment.

Today’s budget prioritises building better homes for NSW, to ensure we continue to address the housing crisis for renters, people wanting to enter the housing market, and the most vulnerable members of our community.

It is a Budget which prioritises building better communities for NSW, by ensuring the homes we build are well located, with access to transport infrastructure and essential services.

We are determined to pull every lever available to address the housing crisis, with the package outlined in this Budget being the biggest investment in public housing construction in the State’s history.

This complements the government’s major reforms to the planning system to build more homes and rebalance housing growth across Sydney.

The Minns Labor government will continue to make responsible, better choices on how and where we spend the public’s money, so we can continue to our work to build a better New South Wales.