The Minns Labor Government’s 2025-26 Budget is long on self-congratulation but short on relief for the families, workers, home buyers, renters and communities who are struggling to make ends meet across NSW.
This year’s Budget confirms what many households already know – their bills are going up, their pay packets are being stretched, and the Government is not keeping up with the rising cost of living.
Stamp duty, payroll tax and land tax revenues are forecast to soar. Motor vehicle charges are up. The public infrastructure pipeline is drying up.
In exchange, households receive re-announcements, slogans, and government guarantees for developers.
The Minns Labor Government’s headline housing policy is a $1 billion developer guarantee scheme that sees the Government purchase unsold apartments – without delivering any structural reform to lower the cost of housing or remove the barriers facing families trying to enter the housing market.
The 5,000 homes that the Government is proposing to underwrite with this initiative is just 1.3% of their housing target and is a concession that their taxes and charges are killing feasibility in the building sector.
Tanya Davies MP, Member for Badgerys Creek said after two years in office, Labor’s Budget reads like a collection of band-aids.
“There is no cost-of-living plan. There is no tax reform. There is no visionary infrastructure like we saw under the Coalition. Families are paying more, but they are not getting more,” Mrs Davies said.
“This Budget is light on infrastructure, silent on the hundreds of millions in project deferrals, and completely absent on the key issues facing our communities.
“The Minns Labor Government has failed to deliver the basics, let alone the bold reforms our communities need to thrive.”
The facts are:
- Capital expenditure, an investment in the future, is falling from 2.8% of Gross State Product (the total value of goods and services produced within NSW) to 2.0% over four years.
- Revenue from transfer duty on property and land, including homes is forecast to grow 22% in just four years.
- Payroll tax revenue and land tax revenue are each forecast to rise 24% in four years.
- Motor vehicle taxes are forecast to rise 26% in four years.
- Interest on government debt is rising at 7.4% per year.
- There is no extension to toll relief for commuters.
- There is no new tangible cost of living relief.
For a Budget claiming to deliver for NSW, the fine print tells a very different story.