The 2023-24 Budget for New South Wales will be handed down at a critical time.

While the state’s economy is strong and is a firm foundation for future economic and social progress, there are substantial short, medium and longer-term challenges that call for significant action over the term of the new Government of NSW.

Ai Group accepts the need for repair of the state’s budget following the setbacks stemming in large part from the necessary stimulatory measures during the COVID pandemic. In addition, as the Treasurer detailed in the Economic Statement of 20 June 2023, there is a need to lift provisions for the state’s insurance liabilities; to revalue the State’s non-financial assets; to adequately fund a range of future infrastructure and program expenditures; and to return the budget and the debt outlook to more robust positions more rapidly than those projected in the Economic Statement.

Ai Group supports the Government’s comprehensive expenditure review aimed at contributing to lower inflation; improving the sustainable delivery of essential services; and only funding programs that work. We accept that this will mean that programs will need to be removed or remodelled to deliver desired outcomes more efficiently.

In this submission we set out the outcomes that Ai Group believes should be prioritised in the 2023-24 Budget. In this we are mindful of both the immediate needs but also the cornerstone role the Government’s first Budget plays for its agenda over the term of the current Parliament and beyond.

The closely interrelated priorities raised in this submission are:

• Improving the capabilities of the current and future workforce in support of current
  and emerging needs and opportunities.
• Stimulating industry development and lifting the organisational capabilities of
  businesses and public sector agencies.
• Ensuring a faster increase in the supply of housing for our growing and changing
  population and of at least maintaining the level of investment in our economic and
  social infrastructure.
• Lifting the pace of productivity growth in both the public and private sectors.
• Make more efficient progress in the energy transition; in the broader task of
  achieving significant reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases; and in
  addressing the management of waste.