Long-term economic plan

Supporting opportunities for women

The Women’s Opportunity Statement committed $5.6 billion over the next decade to help make New South Wales a place where women have full access to opportunities and choice, live freely and safely, and are valued for their diverse skills and experiences.

It consolidates the NSW Government’s long-term commitment to supporting women’s economic wellbeing, and in turn growing the economy for all people of New South Wales.

To address key barriers to workforce participation, including factors such as health and safety, the NSW Government will deliver a range of initiatives over the next decade, including:

• $5 billion to establish the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund, which was legislated in October 2022. This will make childcare more affordable and accessible so that parents, particularly women, are supported to have a genuine choice to participate in the workforce
• $123.3 million to establish up to 16 new menopause services, supporting women experiencing menopausal symptoms to maintain a fulfilling social and work life. As part of this, the locations of four Australian-first menopause hubs have been announced for women experiencing severe symptoms of menopause
• $102.8 million to further improve the Safer Pathway program, New South Wales’ overarching response to domestic and family violence. The State’s first Women’s Safety Commissioner has been appointed to oversee the NSW Government’s five-year domestic and family violence plan.

Giving children and young people the best start to life

The 2022-23 Budget committed $10.9 billion over the next decade to support children and young people to have the best start in life.

The NSW Government is delivering its Universal Pre-Kindergarten initiative, a $5.6 billion commitment over 10 years to progressively deliver high-quality play-based education for all children in the year before school. Pilots have now opened to trial key features of the program. When fully implemented, the reform will ensure that all children, regardless of their family’s wealth or circumstances, can access a solid foundation of early learning to achieve better outcomes throughout their school years and later in life.

The NSW Government is also investing $4 billion over 10 years for Affordable Preschool to improve access for families with children in preschools.

The NSW Government is investing $312.7 million over 10 years to attract, retain and upskill early childhood education and care educators through measures such as the Early Childhood Education and Care Vocational Education and Training Qualifications Scholarships Program, which opened in December 2022.

Increasing housing access and ownership

The NSW Government has a long-term vision to increase opportunities to help people access and own a quality home.

The First Home Buyer Choice gives eligible first home buyers the choice to pay upfront stamp duty or a smaller annual property tax for purchases up to $1.5 million. On 16 January 2023, applications through Revenue NSW opened, with 761 first home buyers choosing the property tax to save a combined $34.6 million in upfront stamp duty costs as at 31 January 2023.

The Shared Equity Home Buyer Helper has been launched to assist lower-income single parents, singles over 50 and first-home-buyer key workers employed as nurses, midwives, paramedics, teachers, early childhood educators or police officers. The NSW Government can contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a home. Applications via Bendigo Bank opened on 23 January 2023, with 3,000 places available in 2022-23 and another 3,000 places opening on 1 July 2023 for 2023-24.

These initiatives are part of the $2.8 billion housing package announced in 2022-23 Budget to improve housing access and help more people own their own home.

Growing the clean economy

The NSW Government’s commitment to Net Zero Emissions by 2050 has been strengthened by its new interim emissions reduction target of 70 per cent by 2035. This has been enabled by the continued delivery of government policies, including:

• the $7.8 billion agreement with the Australian Government to use the NSW Transmission Acceleration Facility and the Australian Government’s Rewiring the Nation Plan. This agreement supports the delivery of eight critical transmission and Renewable Energy Zone projects and will support more than 3,900 jobs
• the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, with 16 projects shortlisted under the first tender round for Long-Term Energy Service Agreements. These projects will be capable of powering the equivalent of almost 1.6 million homes. Overall, the Roadmap will support 6,300 construction jobs and 2,800 ongoing jobs, mostly in regional New South Wales
• rebates and stamp duty exemptions for eligible electric vehicles (EVs). At the end of December, 3,862 rebates, valued at $3,000 each, have been paid, and stamp duty has been refunded for 4,733 eligible EVs.