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The Minns Labor Government is investing more than $5.3 billion this year to ensure the NSW Police Portfolio has the strength and support it needs to keep communities safe.

The Minns Labor Government’s first Budget begins a new era of responsible investment in essential services.

For the NSW Police Force, this means ensuring they have the resources they need to prevent crime and remain a world-class policing organisation.

The 2023-24 Budget sets a strong foundation for a better and more secure force by making sustainable investments in staff and infrastructure.

Police officer turnover more than doubled during the last term of the former government from 513 separations in 2017-18 to 1,286 in 2021-22.

This Government is committed to the long-term plan of rebuilding our Police Force over the next four years. The Budget commits $4 million in 2023-24 to fund an additional 20 police recruits who will hit the beat in Western Sydney after attesting at the end of this year.

We know this region includes some of Sydney’s fastest growing areas, so this investment will help not only the people who live there, but the officers who work hard to serve the community.

New investment of $103 million in capital expenditure over four years will support the upgrade of police facilities and infrastructure across the state, including:

• $27 million for critical police operational radio communicating capabilities across the south, southwest and far west of New South Wales.
• $23 million uplift in minor capital works to ensure that police officers have appropriate infrastructure, facilities, technology and equipment to respond to crime and keep the community safe.
• $8 million for the construction of a new police wharf at Balmain to help ensure the NSW Police Force not only has the equipment but infrastructure it needs to keep our communities and waterways safe.
• $3 million to upgrade police facilities at Helensburgh.
• $8 million for repairs and refurbishments, including at Glebe Police Station and Nepean Police Area Command.
• $2 million to support the crucial role of the NSW Police Marine Command through the upgrade of the Nemesis vessel that is used in extended offshore operations, including search and rescue and targeting narcotic importation.

Further, organised crime has no place on our streets and this Government is cracking down, with $15.4 million to create the Criminal Assets Confiscation Team, which will target, investigate and seize the ill-gotten wealth of crime kingpins, seriously disrupting their criminal activity.

$12 million will also enhance the capacity of our DNA testing program and make sure police continue to have the resources to identify offenders and solve serious crimes.
The NSW Police Force serves our community day in, day out, from proactive policing and keeping our roads safe, to addressing domestic violence and targeting organised crime.

These are sustainable, careful but strong measures to ensure the NSW community is protected; we know a strong, well-supported and well-resourced police force is critical to achieving that.

The 2023-24 Budget begins the long-term work of rebuilding our social and affordable housing system.

Housing affordability and availability is the biggest single pressure facing the people of NSW, with mortgage payments or rent the largest expense for most households.

Addressing the chronic shortage of housing across NSW requires a long-term plan. The NSW Government has today taken important steps which will support First Home Buyers, renters and victim survivors of domestic violence. The 2023-24 Budget includes:

Social and affordable housing and homelessness:

The NSW Government will establish Homes NSW to deliver better outcomes for public and social housing tenants, deliver more affordable and social housing and reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness in NSW.

The 2023-24 Budget will also begin addressing housing supply and provide critical support programs to our most vulnerable people through a $224 million Essential Housing Package. The package includes:

• $70 million debt financing to accelerate the delivery of social, affordable and private homes primarily in regional NSW.
• $35.3 million to continue to provide housing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families through Services Our Waylaunch.
• $35 million to support critical maintenance for social housing.
• $20 million reserved in Restart NSW for dedicated mental health housing.
• $15 million to establish a NSW Housing Fund for urgent priority housing and homelessness measures to confront the housing crisis.
• $11.3 million to extend the Together Home program.
• $11 million urgent funding injection to Temporary Accommodation in 2023-24 to support rising homelessness.
• $10.5 million urgent funding injection to the Community Housing Leasing Program.
• $10 million Modular Housing Trial to deliver faster quality social housing.
• $5.9 million urgent funding for 2023-24 to allow specialist homelessness services to address increasing demand.

Boosting housing supply:

• $300 million reinvested in Landcomlaunch to accelerate the construction of thousands of new dwellings, with 30% for affordable housing.
• $400 million reserved in Restart NSW for the new Housing Infrastructure Fund, to deliver infrastructure that will unlock housing across the state.
• $1.5 billion for housing related infrastructure through the Housing and Productivity Contribution.
• $60 million supporting new “Build to Rent” trials in the South Coast and Northern Rivers.

Planning reforms:

• $24 million to establish a NSW Building Commissioner to support high quality housing and protect home buyers from sub-standard buildings.
• $9.1 million to assess housing supply opportunities across government-owned sites, including for the delivery of new social housing.
• $5.6 million for an artificial intelligence pilot to deliver planning system efficiencies.
• Overhaul and simplify the planning system by redirecting resources from the Greater Cities Commissionlaunch and Western Parkland City Authority.launch

Today is another step in the right direction to rebuild our housing system. That means more money to build social and affordable homes as well as funding for vital homelessness services that some of the most vulnerable people of NSW need.

The Minns Labor Government is delivering on its election commitments to fix essential services by delivering the biggest pay rises to NSW essential workers in decades.

Since being elected, the Government has worked closely with public sector unions to negotiate better industrial instruments for staff and, ultimately, better services for the people of NSW.

So far, 41 industrial instruments have locked in pay increases for more than 190,000 public sector workers, including health workers, rural fire service and child protection officers, with more still to come.

This is part of the Government’s efforts to restore essential services and address critical staff shortages across the public sector.

These industrial instruments will now mean better pay which will help retain and develop existing staff while attracting new talent to make sure we can keep the State’s essential services like schools, hospitals, and national parks running smoothly for the people of NSW.

In June 2023, the NSW Government took the first steps towards recognising the valuable work of our essential workers with the largest pay rise in more than a decade by providing a 4.5 per cent pay increase to public sector employees in 2023-24.

This pay increase for more than 400,000 public sector employees was just the beginning of a longterm plan to support wage growth and rebuild essential services.

The 2023-24 NSW Budget builds on these efforts with a range of measures locked in, including:

• Removal of the previous government’s wages cap from 1 September 2023.
• A $3.6 billion Essential Services Fund to support a new bargaining framework.
• Investing more than $2.5 billion to recruit and retain health workers.
• Securing a historic pay rise for the state’s nearly 100,000 teachers.

The Opposition has criticised the Minns Government’s Budget, saying it leaves behind hard working families struggling under Labor’s cost of living crisis and instead rewards Labor’s union mates for their support during the election.

The Budget relies on increased taxes and cuts to programs to offset the Government’s union wage deals.
 
“Since coming to office the Government has broken a string of promises,” Mr Speakman said.
 
“The Budget doesn’t account for major expenditure items such as the cost of extending the Eraring power station and assumes employee expenses won’t increase by more than 4.1% per year. This severely undermines the credibility of forward projections and forecasts.”
 
“This Government’s first priority is rewarding their union mates for their support during the election campaign. Chris Minns lacks vision, and ultimately families and households across NSW will pay the price.” 
 
Leader of the Nationals Dugald Saunders said the Budget failed regional NSW. 
 
“Chris Minns and his Government has again demonstrated that they don’t understand regional NSW. This Budget does little to help communities as they continue to recover from the impacts of drought and natural disasters,” Mr Saunders said.
 
“Vital cost of living programs that regional communities rely on have been cut, meaning more pressure on household budgets.”
 
Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope said the Budget forecasts, including a return to surplus next year, are entirely dodgy because the ultimate cost of the Minns Government pay deal with unions remains unknown. 
 
“The Budget today revealed that the wages bill (including superannuation) will exceed $55 billion in 2027. There is no prospect of the Government’s $3.6 billion being enough to cover union wage demands for the next four years.”
 
“Wages are the largest expenditure item in the Budget. We have seen a $17.6 billion tax hike – a massive $5.5 billion in 2023-24 alone – and cost of living measures cut to pay for this deal with the unions. Further unfunded wage increases will wipe out any prospect of achieving a surplus and risk the state’s Triple A credit rating.”
 
Shadow Minister for Finance Eleni Petinos said that over the coming days the Opposition will scrutinise the Budget and ensure that any secret cuts or creative accounting practices are brought to light.
 
“The Treasurer has boasted about $13 billion in savings, including $1.4 billion from the Education Department. We want to ensure that these cuts won’t impact frontline services and adversely affect people across NSW,” Ms Petinos said.
 
“In the midst of Labor’s cost of living crisis, rising inflation and high interest rates, the Government’s ongoing focus should be on providing support to families and households – not cutting essential cost of living programs as evidenced in today’s Budget.”
 
The Opposition will continue to hold Labor to account and ensure that families and households across NSW are put first.

Today’s announcement of the Essential Housing Package will fail to deliver more homes as the Minns Labor Government turns its back on new housing delivery.
 
“The Minns Government has already turned its back on new homes in regional communities, cancelling the much-needed Argyll Estate redevelopment in Coffs Harbour that was to deliver close to 500 homes, without any alternative on the table,” Shadow Minister for Housing Scott Farlow said.
 
“It’s strange that the Government would put $70 million towards accelerating the delivery of social and affordable homes, primarily in regional New South Wales, when just last week they cancelled much needed projects in regional NSW like the Argyll Estate redevelopment.”
 
“The Argyll Estate cancellation was ideological – the Government didn’t want private sector development on the site which was going to fund the social re-development. The outcome is that the Government’s ideology will deliver fewer private dwellings and fewer social and affordable homes. The Future Directions Policy introduced by the Coalition Government delivered more social, affordable and private homes, improved the social housing stock and was sustainably funded.”
 
“The question that Labor needs to answer is how they are going to fund their additional social housing commitments if they take the private sector out of the equation. Put simply, the money needs to come from somewhere.”
 
“In last year’s Coalition Budget, $300 million was allocated for capital maintenance works on over 15,800 State-owned social housing properties, extending the life of social homes and ensuring tenants have safe accommodation.”
 
“The Government needs to make clear whether their funding package today is in addition to that amount or just a re-allocation of existing commitments.”
 
Shadow Minister for Homelessness Natasha Maclaren-Jones welcomed the news that the Labor Government endorsed the successful Services Our Way and Together Home packages that were established by the Coalition in Government and have been delivering for vulnerable communities.
 
“In Government the Coalition invested more than $9 billion in social housing and increased the social housing portfolio by 10% over a decade with 154,000 properties, making it bigger than both Victoria and Queensland combined, while reducing the waiting list by 30,000 since we came into office,” Ms Maclaren-Jones concluded.