The Minns Labor Government's 2025-26 Budget continues the job of rebuilding the essential services people in NSW rely on after over a decade of neglect by the Coalition.
Providing quality health care
Everyone should be able to access the quality health care they need, when they need it - no matter where they live.
To ensure world-class facilities, this budget delivers $12.4 billion of capital investment to build and upgrade health infrastructure over the next four years, with $3.3 billion in 2025-26.
We are also investing in core health services to ensure quality care and reduce overdue surgeries through the $836.4 million Essential Health Services package.
New mothers will benefit from expanded support with a $105.7 million investment to increase access to care during pregnancy and in the first five years of life.
Strengthening public education and early learning
The Minns Labor Government is strengthening public education by fully and fairly funding public schools while delivering targeted reforms aimed at lifting student outcomes.
The Better and Fairer Schools Agreement between the NSW and Australian Governments will see an estimated $10.4 billion of additional funding for NSW schools over the next 10 years.
This is the largest funding commitment for public school students in NSW history, ensuring every child has access to world-class, free public education and the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of where they live.
The 2025-26 Budget also continues to deliver on the Government's historic investment in school infrastructure with $9 billion to meet the needs of NSW's fastest growing communities.
The Minns Labor Government has worked tirelessly to address the teacher shortage crisis overseen by the former Liberal-National Government, investing in measures to lift teacher pay, reduce excessive administrative burdens, provide support for hard-to-staff schools and make thousands of temporary teachers permanent. This has led to:
- NSW schools starting the year with 40 per cent fewer vacancies than the same time in 2023 and 61 per cent fewer vacancies than the peak of the crisis
- Teacher resignations falling for the first time in 13 years
- Half the number of merged and cancelled classes.
The Minns Labor Government is continuing to deliver on its commitment for 100 new public preschools, continuing Start Strong and strengthening regulation in line with the findings of an independent review by former NSW Deputy Ombudsman Chris Wheeler and in consultation with other jurisdictions.
Rebuilding skills and TAFE
We are making sure we can build the homes NSW needs by supporting more than 23,000 new apprentices and 4,800 existing workers to enter the construction workforce over the next two years. This is part of a record $3.4 billion investment in TAFE NSW and skills in 2025-26.
This is the largest investment in vocational training in NSW, helping to rebuild our TAFE sector following a decade of gutting and neglect by the former government.
The Minns Labor Government is continuing to return stability to the TAFE NSW workforce, with an additional $325 million investment to convert TAFE teachers and staff to permanent positions.
This builds on the more than 3,000 TAFE teachers we have already made permanent, to ensure that they can focus on delivering the best training outcomes for students in NSW.
The 2025-26 Budget also commits $380.4 million to renew and deliver critical maintenance to TAFE NSW campuses across the state.
Delivering essential public transport and roads
The Minns Labor Government is ensuring that our communities are better connected by investing $452 million to expand and maintain bus services in growing areas.
This year's roads budget targets NSW's fastest growing communities including Western Sydney and Regional NSW.
We are investing in congestion busting improvements to the arterial road network, new and widened roads, new intersections, safety improvements - all supporting new homes, expanding suburbs and new facilities.
We are also getting on with planning the next round of major projects, keeping the momentum of delivery up.
In partnership with the Australian Government, the 2025-26 Budget provides an additional $909.2 million for roads across NSW.
This Budget also includes over $2.8 billion in road safety funding, including for safety trials, intersection upgrades, and new barriers and median strips, delivering on commitments in the 2026 Road Safety Action Plan.
The 2025-26 Budget is supporting the continuation of our Toll Reform Program with $58 million to establish, operate and manage the NSW Motorways Entity.
Supporting emergency services
We are also investing in improving our front-line emergency services with $42.2 million to operate a new 24-hour fire station at Badgerys Creek and $35.9 million for Fire and Rescue NSW to maintain critical response services.
The NSW Rural Fire Service will also receive a funding boost, with $34.4 million to secure aircrafts and helicopters to help protect regional communities.
To keep communities connected during natural disasters, we are investing $6.4 million to maintain the Emergency Alert System, supporting emergency warnings sent to mobile and landline phones.
Building a clean and reliable energy grid
This Budget continues to deliver on the Minns Labor Government's strategic priority to transform our electricity system to provide clean, reliable and affordable energy by investing in the Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.
This includes continued investment of $2.1 billion in the Transmission Acceleration Facility, primarily to support the five Renewable Energy Zones at Central-West Orana, New England, Hunter-Central Coast, Illawarra and South West. This continued investment builds on the $1.1 billion invested to date on these critical projects.
The Government is investing $115.5 million to construct a logistics precinct adjacent to the Port of Newcastle. This critical new hub will provide portside storage for equipment, including wind turbines and transformers, that is needed to build renewable energy projects across the state.
Investing in digital services
The 2025-26 Budget invests $104.1 million to deliver better digital services through Government Technology Platforms, supporting customer apps like NSW FuelCheck and Hazards Near Me. The Government Technology Platforms team will continue their work to digitise 130 licences across 14 agencies.
The NSW Spatial Digital Twin will get a $6.1 million funding boost as part of the Government's commitment to boost housing supply and build better communities.
Supporting the workforce
The Minns Labor Government remains committed to supporting our essential workers, having reached multi-year agreements with more than 60 per cent of the public sector workforce and delivering real wages growth for the first time since 2019-20.
The Minns Labor Government has:
- Improved job security by reducing the use of consultants and labour hire and providing casual or temporary staff with the opportunity to convert to permanent positions
- Enhanced paid parental leave by extending it to more types of custody and kinship arrangements
- Restored the Industrial Court with new appointments to ensure there is an expedient one-stop shop for workplace justice
- Given gig workers, owner-driver truck drivers, couriers and delivery drivers new or improved access to the industrial commission.
To better support workers, we are also making the biggest investment in workplace safety in decades with $262.0 million of a $344.0 million overall package to better support injured workers. This includes $127.7 million to restore the independence of SafeWork NSW and ensure its frontline inspectorate and prosecutions are resourced to protect workers from harms, such as psychosocial hazards, and to restore public trust.
