16 News

The Minns Labor Government will invest $30 million in improving grassroots sports facilities to turbocharge the growth of women and girls sport across NSW through a brand new Level the Playing Field program.

This program will support the growth of women and girls sport in NSW after a recordbreaking FIFA Women’s World Cup during which the Matildas inspired the nation, and an unbelievable 12th World Cup championship win by the Diamonds at the Netball World Cup.

The Level the Playing Field program will allow grassroots sporting groups to access funding to upgrade and build sporting facilities for women and girls in their local communities.

The program is expected to fund 100 new and upgraded facilities and will contribute to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for women and girls to train and play, by delivering fit-for-purpose facilities and amenities such as change rooms, accessibility improvements, and improved lighting.

As part of the budget, the Minns Labor Government is also delivering on its promise to support local community and school sports through a number of other initiatives.

The Football in Schools Program in Western Sydney will also receive $14.5 million, partnering with the Western Sydney Wanderers and Macarthur Bulls to support local school sporting teams.

The Central Coast will receive $3.7 million to improve football infrastructure and programs.

This will include a synthetic playing field in Tuggerah, as well as training facilities for the new Central Coast Mariners A-Leagues Women’s team. Funding for these projects will be matched by the Central Coast Mariners.

This funding also includes $1 million for the Central Coast Mariners community programs for at-risk youth and disadvantaged adults.

The budget will more than double funding for state sponsored organisations (SSOs), such as Football NSW and Sport NSW, from $2.45 million to $5 million in 2023–2024, and $10 million in 2024–2025 and 2025–2026.

These new agreements will include incentives for SSOs to achieve specific outcomes in increasing female participation in their organisations and improving their governance.

The National Management Group (NMG), driving the Varroa mite program across Australia met yesterday, and has decided to transition its approach to addressing this biosecurity issue confronting the nation’s beekeepers and pollination industry.

After considering the latest scientific data and advice, governments and industry organisations have unanimously decided to move from an eradication program to a management approach.
 
The NSW Government has agreed with all industry and government partners that the potential to eradicate is no longer possible and that we now need to work collaboratively to manage and minimise the impact of varroa.
 
Despite the comprehensive $101 million spend and effort to eradicate the mite, the transition from an ‘eradication’ program to a ‘management’ program was concluded because of the many factors working against a possible eradication in Australia. 
 
The NSW Government will work with all the national players and reallocate resources to slowing the spread of the pest and providing management options to help minimising its impact. 
 
Communications are being developed by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and industry partners to explain to all stakeholders what this shift in program means and how the government will guide and assist affected stakeholders.
 
The NMG considered the following major factors for why eradication has not reached its desired objectives:
 

• Non-compliance by some bee industry actors with the NSW Movement Orders and the mandatory hive testing (alcohol washes), and evidence of illegal movement of bees resulting in further spread of the varroa mite. 
• The recent spike in new detections, have made it clear that the Varroa mite infestation is more widespread and has also been present for longer than first thought.
• The increase in new detections and generation of a control area greater than 16,000 km2, has stretched the eradication team’s responses to their technical limit.

 
Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Regional New South Wales, and Minister for Western New South Wales, Tara Moriarty said:
 
“The priority now is for the NSW Department of Primary Industries to communicate with all the stakeholders of the beekeeper and pollination sectors and advise them what the change in program means for their industry. 
 
“I’ve directed the Department of Primary Industries to immediately engage industry stakeholders and beekeepers to provide guidance and assistance so that they can quickly respond to the transition of the Varroa mite management program.”
 
Director General of Department of Primary Industries Scott Hansen said:
 
“The department will move swiftly to transition our team and all our stakeholders to this new approach and will be providing information and support to the industry.
 
“The 2399 DPI people and staff from supporting agencies and industry in the Varroa mite response team have been working around the clock since last year on this program and I thank them for their incredible effort. They have succeeded in delaying the spread of Varroa mite for more than a year which needs to be recognised.”
 
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, Danny Le Feuvre said:
 
“While eradication was the original goal, the focus will now shift to supporting beekeepers in the transition to management.
 
“I thank all the beekeepers for their cooperation throughout the response and especially those who have felt the emotional and financial impacts of this response.

“There is still lots industry can do to contain and slow the spread of Varroa mite, which is why NSW will operate under an interim management strategy until the National Management Plan for Transition to Management is agreed upon.
 
“At the same time, AHBIC will continue to work with NMG to ensure any support measures offered to beekeepers are fit for purpose.”

Additional taxes and charges in Labor’s Budget will make home ownership less achievable for the people of New South Wales.
 
Shadow Minister for Housing Scott Farlow said that more housing is a mirage under Minns. Labor’s best effort to build more homes is for Landcom to deliver a measly 88 affordable homes and 206 market homes per year through to 2039-40.
 
“Housing was supposed to be the centrepiece of this Budget, yet the Labor Government’s only answer is to impose more taxes for those building new homes, which makes homes less affordable. It also imposes more costs and increases the difficulty for the private sector, which provide the vast majority of housing supply, to deliver more homes,” Mr Farlow said.
 
“The Government’s infrastructure centrepiece is funded by a tax on new homes, with the associated infrastructure not tied to the area in which the development occurs.”
 
“Rather than outlining new vision and focussing on measures to increase supply, the Government has increased taxation.”
 
“The Housing and Productivity Contribution could add up to $37,000 to the price of a new home in Western Sydney if it attracts both a strategic biodiversity component and transport project component.”
 
“The money raised by this contribution isn’t tied to the geographic area, with the potential for funds raised from a new development in Penrith paying for a bike path in Petersham.”
 
“There has been no revised feasibility assessment of this charge since 2020 and since that time interest rates have risen by 400 basis points and construction costs have increased by 30%.”
 
“Worse still, the Government is not undertaking any further contributions reform and is applying this charge at the Construction Certificate stage, the point in the construction where financing is most difficult and will add additional financing costs on builders.”
 
“The Budget papers also reveal that Sydney Water’s development servicing plan (DSP) will not just be used for infrastructure recovery costs, but be used to increase Sydney Water dividends by 4.5 times over the forward estimates with no commensurate savings to consumers.”
 
“This is a great big tax on industry and consumers that will make new homes in Western Sydney more expensive and not save users any money on their water bills.”
 
“The last Liberals and Nationals budget delivered a $2.8 billion Housing Package that helped first home buyers, created a shared equity scheme, accelerated the delivery of new infrastructure to support housing and upgraded and enhanced NSW’s social housing stock,” Mr Farlow said.

The Minns Labor Government’s Budget fails to provide energy certainty for NSW, limiting energy relief, ripping away subsidies for EVs and failing to include any provisions for the extension of the Eraring Power Station, potentially risking a future energy blackhole.
 
As families and businesses struggle under Labor’s cost of living crisis, higher inflation and increased interest rates, 1.5 million households will miss out on energy bill relief, leaving people across NSW to fend for themselves.
 
There are also more than 500,000 small businesses in NSW that do not qualify for energy relief from the Minns Government.
 
“The Government have not provided a single cent to the ongoing operation of the Eraring Power Station which could cost up to $3 billion. This is completely at odds with their commitment pre-Budget to discuss extending the aging power station.”
 
“And despite allocating $1 billion to their state-owned energy corporation, Labor can’t explain how it will function or when it will begin providing relief.”
 
The CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council has said that he doubted the people who voted for this government thought they were voting to cut electric vehicle incentives to fund handouts to coal-fired power stations.
 
“Not only has the Minns Government put us in reverse when it comes to Electric Vehicles by scrapping the $3,000 rebate and reintroducing stamp duty, they continue to leave households in the dark by providing meagre relief from energy bills,” Mr Griffin said.