{"id":747973,"date":"2026-06-20T02:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747973\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:46:10","slug":"public-transport-to-be-cheaper-as-nsw-treasurer-says-discipline-key-to-electoral-success-new-south-wales-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747973\/","title":{"rendered":"Public transport to be cheaper as NSW treasurer says \u2018discipline\u2019 key to electoral success | New South Wales politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commuters will save on public transport fares after the New South Wales<\/a> budget, as the Minns government attempts to walk the fine line between offering cost-of-living relief while not fuelling inflation.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s budget, to be handed down by the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, will lower daily and weekly caps that apply when people use Opal or credit cards to catch a train, tram, bus or ferry.<\/p>\n

The Opal card system<\/a> currently means people receive free travel after spending $50 in a week. There\u2019s also a daily cap of $19.30 on Monday to Thursday and $9.65 on Friday to Sunday. Seniors have a $2.50 daily cap after which travel is free.<\/p>\n

While some public transport relief will be welcomed, NSW Labor won\u2019t offer free travel as Victoria did<\/a>, or 50c fares as rolled out in Queensland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Minns government wants to ease the pressure on family budgets during the fallout from Israel and the US\u2019s war on Iran and increasing interest rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commuters at the Martin Place metro station. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But far from splashing the cash ahead of the state election in March 2027, Tuesday\u2019s budget will be, overall, an exercise in restraint. Any marquee announcements will be saved for closer to polling day.<\/p>\n

For example, more road toll relief is expected later this year, but not on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The budget is \u201cabout three things: relief, reform and discipline\u201d, Mookhey tells Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelief for today, reform for tomorrow and discipline always. It\u2019s not a slogan, it\u2019s a strategy and the strategy is reflective of our circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The treasurer acknowledges the economy \u201ccan\u2019t grow unless working people feel confident enough in their future to be able to spend\u201d.<\/p>\n

Inflation needs to come down and wages have to grow, Mookhey says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want us to do more than just Band-Aid solutions. We have to deal with the fundamentals of why people feel cost pressures in the first place \u2013 and that really is to do with expensive housing, with the aftermath of an era of wage suppression and low wage growth, which is causing many people to feel as though they work hard, but they don\u2019t get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government wants Tuesday\u2019s \u201cdisciplined\u201d budget to deliver further on the transition to renewables and measures that incentivise home building.<\/p>\n

There are already interest-free loans<\/a> for low-income families to install solar and other energy-saving measures. An additional $225m will be allocated in the budget<\/a> for infrastructure to connect the south-west renewable energy zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Solar panels on a residential property in Sydney. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Labor will increase spending on heavy rail maintenance by $200m<\/a> in 2026-27, taking the total investment to $2.1bn, following several incidents that have crippled the rail network.<\/p>\n

The budget will likely include further spending on new carriages, with the program sold as both a rail upgrade and a local industry plan.<\/p>\n

The government will announce $130m for new walking tracks, picnic areas and visitor centres in the state\u2019s national parks. Some is needed to make the Great Koala national park a reality, while elsewhere spending will boost safety and cope with extra visitors.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s modest budget will help Labor define its upcoming election fight against the Liberal-National Coalition and One Nation.<\/p>\n

A train between Central and Redfern stations. Photograph: Jenny Evans\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The premier, Chris Minns, wants the government to be seen as the responsible, steady-as-she-goes option.<\/p>\n

A Sydney Morning Herald Resolve poll in May suggested Labor had increased its primary vote to 32%. The Coalition was at 26%, One Nation was on 22% and the Greens were steady on 10%. Minns still holds a commanding 38-18 lead over Kellie Sloane as preferred premier.<\/p>\n

Labor will face Coalition promises of new metro lines and additional spending on infrastructure which Mookhey said would be funded by further privatisation of state assets. One Nation, at least federally, is portraying itself as a friend of the \u201cbattlers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do recognise there is a sea change that\u2019s happening in Australian politics,\u201d Mookhey says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut be it the Liberal party, the National party, the Greens or One Nation \u2026 the argument we will be making at the next election is that we are the only team that has a real plan to help working families in NSW.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a steward of the public\u2019s money. Every dollar that I spend, someone else has already earned, whether it\u2019s a nurse on a shift, a hospital cleaner, or a small business person. When you\u2019re spending the public\u2019s dollar, you\u2019ve got to treat it with respect \u2013 especially at a time of high inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey in his Parliament House office this week. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The NSW economy is expected to grow by just 1%, with the main driver being investment in renewables. Labor expects a fall in stamp duty revenue due to a slowdown in the property market after three interest rate hikes and the commonwealth government\u2019s changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has led to a $5bn downgrade over the forward estimates here in NSW,\u201d Mookhey says.<\/p>\n

Interest rates on the mountain of public debt accumulated during Covid have also risen from about 1% to 5.5%.<\/p>\n

NSW\u2019s half-yearly economic statement put gross debt at $177.2bn. That\u2019s $11bn below the forecast when Labor came to power in 2023.<\/p>\n

There will also be additional pressure on the NSW budget as federal Labor reforms the NDIS, with the states and territories expected to provide services for the 200,000-plus participants expected to leave the scheme<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commuters will save on public transport fares after the New South Wales budget, as the Minns government attempts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-747973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}