NEW SOUTH WALES — The New South Wales government announced a cost-of-living relief budget on May 27, 2026, which includes a reduced weekly road toll cap, lower vehicle registration fees, and a public transport fare freeze. The cap for weekly road tolls will decrease from $60 to $50 for a 12-month period. Vehicle registration fees will be reduced by $100, and public transport fares within the Opal system will remain unchanged for one year.

Drivers will be eligible to claim back up to $350 per week in tolls after paying $50. NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the budget aims to provide cost-of-living relief and create a "state working families can afford" to live in. Mookhey said the overwhelming pressure in New South Wales was that it was "too expensive to buy a house and too expensive to rent".

The budget also includes increased funding for domestic and family violence programs. Additionally, it features a new facility for delivering prefabricated and modular homes. The government will allocate about $4.1 billion of its $9.2 billion four-year school infrastructure spend to new schools and upgrades in western Sydney.

New South Wales is projected to have a $2.3 billion deficit in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The state is then forecast to reach a $1.1 billion surplus in 2027-28, with NSW Labor anticipating this surplus to grow to $1.9 billion by 2029-30. Gross debt levels for New South Wales are expected to exceed $200 billion by 2027-28. The New South Wales economy is forecast to grow by 1% in 2026-27, while population growth is expected at 1.1%.

The NSW government has excluded new major transport projects from the budget. Mookhey said, "One side is for creating thousands of jobs and growing the economy by reaching net zero. One side is not." The budget contains $1.1 billion in contingency funding for the 2026-27 fiscal year, allocated for unfinalized spending.