NSW State Budget – Walker Wayland

The following highlights emerged from the budget delivery:

Economic Performance

The NSW Government would deliver a $3.4 billion surplus for the 2015-16 year, with surplus of $3.7 billion currently forecasted for 2016-17;
NSW has grown faster than the rest of the Australia over the past financial year, enjoying above-trend economic growth which is expected to continue for the next two years;
NSW has become the first half a trillion dollar state in the economy, the standalone size of its economy now representing twice the size of New Zealand’s economy and being of similar size to Norway;

Infrastructure and Duties

There are plans to increase expenditure on health by 14 per cent, education by 37 percent, transport and roads by 16 per cent, police by 59 per cent and TAFE by 76 per cent;
The Government has earmarked $262 million from the Housing Acceleration Fund for infrastructure developments around the South West and Western Sydney;
As previously noted, the government will abolish duty on business mortgages and unlisted securities, and transfer duty on non-real business assets. Further details are available in the following article regarding the NSW state budget changes to duties.
$20.2 billion will be allocated to transport and roads infrastructure and services, and $21 billion towards health services;

Employment & Education

At the time of the budget, the unemployment rate is 5.2%, which represents the lowest of any state in Australia;
Employment is forecast to grow by an above-trend rate of 1.75% in 2016-17, and 1.5% in 2017-18;
There is an expectation that the unemployment rate will lower to 5% over the next two years;
The Government intends to spend $13.3 billion on school education services in 2016-17 in anticipation of a spike in student enrolments which are expected to grow by up to 40,000 students in the next four years;
To view the budget in full, including the detailed infrastructure statement and budget overviews, you can visit the State Governments’ budget portal at https://www.budget.nsw.gov.au/