Month: September 2023

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.

Minns Labor Government has ditched the former Coalition Government’s popular Electric Vehicle rebate that was helping make the transition to electric vehicles more affordable.
 
“This announcement is poor environmental policy and another example of NSW Labor just not getting it when it comes to cost of living pressures”, said Shadow Minister for Energy James Griffin.
 
Mr Griffin joined the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia in slamming the decision by the Minns Government to remove the EV rebate.
 
“Just like the Minns Labor Government’s decision to axe the stamp duty exemption hurt home ownership, this decision will make purchasing an EV difficult for people across NSW,” said Mr Griffin. “In fact, NSW Labor didn’t flag this cut during the election – they were saying one thing on the clean energy future before the election and got rid of this program after.”
 
The Electric Vehicle rebate helped families across New South Wales afford EVs and in turn saved them money on fuel costs and helped improve our air quality.
 
“This program was helping households to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, with new quarterly data released by the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries showing that our state led the EV uptake in three out of four quarters of last year – a total of 10,798 EVs were sold in the state in 2022, leading the country in terms of absolute sales.”
 
“The Chris Minns’ decision to remove the rebate could seriously impact our position as the number one state and send NSW numbers into reverse gear while the rest of the world is heading in the other direction.”
 
“This policy is shortsighted and does nothing to help ease the cost of living pressures being felt around by households across NSW,” said Mr Griffin.
 
“I share concerns of the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia when it comes to this announcement. The CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council has called this a ‘betrayal’ and he is spot on. Premier Minns and Treasurer Mookhey have done a big U-turn when it comes to an EV future for NSW.”

The Minns Government will invest $260 million in the 2023-24 NSW Budget to increase electric vehicle uptake in NSW and help us achieve our Net Zero emissions targets.

The funding will underpin the rollout of a new NSW EV Strategy which will be developed in partnership with industry stakeholders, to boost investment in critical EV infrastructure.

The Government will prioritise investment in infrastructure for drivers in regional NSW, renters and people who live in apartments, and people who don’t have access to home charging so they can still take advantage of the cost savings from owning an EV. It will fund projects such as fast chargers on commuter routes, more kerbside chargers near apartment blocks, and upgraded grid capacity and charging hubs to support fleets.

This will ensure NSW is ready for EV ownership on a massive scale.

As part of the Minns Government’s reform package, rebates for EV purchases and exemptions for stamp duties will cease on 1 January 2024. However, transitional arrangements will ensure those who have purchased or placed a deposit on an eligible EV, and are awaiting delivery of the vehicle, will still be eligible, regardless of whether the vehicle has been delivered by that date.

These incentives are being phased out because they risk driving up the cost of EVs, resulting in increased profits to manufacturers.

A Road User Charge will commence as planned from 1 July 2027 (or, if earlier, when battery EVs make up 30 per cent of new light vehicle registrations) and will apply to all zero and low emissions vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, registered for the first time or transferred from 1 January 2024.

Minister for Energy and Climate Change Penny Sharpe said:

“Increasing the number of electric vehicles on our roads is an essential step to NSW getting to Net Zero emissions.

“To facilitate EV uptake, the NSW Government will increase funding to essential infrastructure.

“Whether it is in apartment buildings, commuter car parks or kerbside, we are committed to making sure the infrastructure is in place to get electric vehicle drivers from A to B.”

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:

“It’s important the scarce taxpayer dollars we have to transition to electric vehicles are being well spent.

“The benefits of government spending shouldn’t be concentrated in the hands of the few, we must ensure it’s spread across the whole state.

“Savings gained from cutting these costly exemptions and rebates will be reinvested, where it is needed, to deliver a more equitable and efficient EV roll out.”

The funding of integrity agencies is being put at arm’s length and agencies will receive an additional $228.6 million in new expenditure over 10 years to help them continue to deliver their valuable work.

New arrangements announced today by the NSW Government will safeguard the independence of the state’s five key integrity agencies and ensure they remain adequately resourced to maintain their key role in upholding our democracy.

Building on recommendations of a 2020 Public Accountability Committee Report and a 2022 report published by the Auditor-General, the NSW Government will implement a transparent budget management model for the following agencies:

• Audit Office of New South Wales
• the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)
• the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission
• the New South Wales Electoral Commission
• the New South Wales Ombudsman’s Office.

Under the new model, the agencies have been permanently removed from the Department of Premier and the Cabinet Office financial management processes and excluded from efficiency dividends.

Other permanent measures to ensure agency independence include:

• a specialist integrity agency unit within NSW Treasury to manage representations of agency funding needs and provide agencies with information on their funding outcomes.
• the ability for agencies to review Treasury’s advice to Cabinet on funding bids and provide their own advice directly to Cabinet.
• transparent reporting of Cabinet budget decisions impacting agencies to the relevant supervising committee of the Parliament.

The upcoming 2023-24 Budget will include extra funding:

• $75.6m in additional net expenditure for the NSW Electoral Commission for the 2024 Local Government Elections over 2023-24 and 2024-25.
• $49.4m in new expenditure and $9.8m in new capital expenditure over 10 years for the ICAC to address both immediate and long-term operation and service delivery needs.
• $30.5 million in expenditure over 10 years for the Ombudsman to carry out additional duties prescribed in legislation and meet additional service requirements. 
• $21.1 million in expenditure over 10 years for the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to meet its growing remit and oversight activities.

NSW Special Minister of State John Graham said:

“$228.6 million in new expenditure to the State’s key integrity agencies will alleviate previous resourcing pressures and allow them to continue their work investigating, exposing, and preventing corruption and maladministration.

“This new model, along with new funding demonstrates the Government’s commitment to supporting our integrity agencies.”

The NSW Government’s first Budget includes planning for the GST ‘no worse off’ guarantee to be made permanent, to ensure every state and territory receives their fair share of revenue.

The guarantee was established after the GST floor was introduced in 2018 to make sure that all states and territories were no worse off and received a guaranteed minimum 70 per cent share of GST revenue.

The ‘no worse off’ guarantee requires the Australian Government to compensate states for shortfalls in their GST revenue share between the old and new distribution arrangements until 2026-27.

NSW is expected to receive around $3.8 billion in ‘no worse off’ payments over the next two financial years (2023-24 and 2024-25).

The end of the GST ‘no worse off’ guarantee would be disastrous for New South Wales. It is the money required to employ more than 8,000 nurses or teachers. The end of the guarantee would risk essential services and require the reintroduction of inefficient taxes.

Given the impact this would have on New South Wales, and the Australian Government’s commitment to essential services, it would not make sense for the no worse off guarantee to end.

Future NSW Budget planning will be made on the assumption of the continuation of the GST ‘no-worse off guarantee’.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:

“My focus is on making sure New South Wales gets its fair share of GST revenue. The ‘no worse off’ guarantee helps deliver critical services and infrastructure.

“All states and territories are in agreement that the guarantee should continue.”