NSW budget hands down biggest ever social housing policy

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The New South Wales government has announced its biggest ever social housing policy, committing to build more than 8000 new and renovated social homes, with 3000 to go to women and children fleeing domestic violence.

Transcript

00:00This is what the Premier, the Treasurer says is a must-have and not a nice-to-have.

00:08There is a $3.6 billion budget deficit this year, but the Treasurer says that its housing

00:14policy is one of the key things that it must deliver.

00:18Now it's promised an additional 30,000 homes, mainly in Sydney, but also across the state,

00:25They'll be delivered partly by private, but partly by government developers as well.

00:30So 8,000 of those homes will be social housing, and about 6,000 of those will be new.

00:37So the rest will be social housing homes that already exist and will need to be rebuilt.

00:42Now the Government's key announcement today is that of those new homes, about half of

00:47them, so 3,000, will be given first to women and children who are fleeing domestic violence.

00:53So they'll be able to have first access to those homes.

00:57The other key policy is that the Government has been looking at pieces of public land

01:02that it can sell.

01:03So it's looking at about 44 sites that it will sell first to Homes NSW and to LandCom,

01:10which are the Government's developers, but it says it will also put them out to sale

01:14to the private market with the hope that on those pieces of land another 21,000 homes

01:20will be built.

01:21The Government has been saying that about 48% of adults in NSW are delaying appointments

01:28to the GP because they can't afford it.

01:31So this is a $189 million policy which will go towards cutting payroll tax for GP clinics.

01:38So they don't have to pay payroll tax on their consultant GPs, and that will mean that they

01:44are able to bulk bill a greater portion of patients.

01:48So in Sydney, GP clinics that bulk bill 80% of patients will be eligible to not pay that

01:55payroll tax, and that it's also a retrospective policy.

01:58So there will be the ability for GP clinics, according to the AMA, to stay open now that

02:05they've got this extra money.

02:06So Ros, this is a budget that is not a cash splash, there hasn't been any extra money

02:12announced for cost of living or anything like that, it's what the Government says is must-haves

02:17and not nice-to-haves, but it is something that it hopes will go some way to alleviating

02:23in particular the housing crisis in NSW.

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