THE NSW government loosed the purse strings for this budget and there’s so much interest in the specific details, that the budget papers website has crashed.
While we wait for it to come back online, here’s a handful highlights for you to digest. We’ll have more coverage with more details soon.
HEALTH
- Tamworth’s Banksia mental health unit will get a slice of the $700m mental health infrastructure fund for “physical upgrades or refurbishments”
- Tenterfield and Scone health facilities to be upgraded as part of Rural Health Infrastructure Program
- Funding for an extra 950 more nurses, 300 doctors, 100 midwives and 750 paramedics
EDUCATION
- Money to begin the construction of Armidale’s new high school, the $67m Armidale Secondary College
- $200 million for all three-year-olds to access preschool.
- $500 million to put air-conditioning in 1000 NSW schools.
- An extra 900 teachers, mainly with a speciality in science and maths.
ROADS
- $84 million for the New England Highway including the Scone bypass and the Bolivia Hill upgrade between Glen Innes and Tenterfield;
- $62 million for the Newell Highway including fast tracking the delivery of overtaking lanes
- $81 million for Bridges for the Bush, allowing construction of new bridges in regional NSW, including Gunnedah
BUSINESS
- Payroll tax threshold will be lifted from $750,000 to $1 million
- 100,000 fee-free apprenticeships will be created through a $285m fund.
Jamieson Murphy
Newcastle Herald news director. Interested in any and all yarns. Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Newcastle Herald news director. Interested in any and all yarns. Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@austcommunitymedia.com.au
