It’s been a year since New South Wales voters kicked out the Coalition – backing Labor for the first time in a decade.
The new premier, Chris Minns, promised to scrap the public sector wages cap, end privatisation, reform renting and get more homes built. But how has Labor fared in its first 12 months in office?
Housing and renting
Labor came to power talking tough on housing, with a warning to anti-development nimbys to “get out of the way”.
But the first budget left housing advocates cold, with just $300m pledged for reinvestment in the state-owned property development organisation Landcom to fund almost 5,000 homes over 15 years.
The government in December announced its signature housing plan to rezone land for increased density around dozens of stations across Sydney. There was also a plan to acquire Rosehill Racecourse for 25,000 new homes.
The main Transport Oriented Development (Tod) plan is facing pushback from several mayors. They have accused the government of overreach and say the plan risks compromising heritage and character, but developers and yimbys welcomed the Tod.
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, has said “young people and future generations are being let down”.
“Chris Minns’ approach to solving the housing crisis is a lazy, arrogant, one-size-fits-all policy that won’t deliver much new housing in the next few years,” he said.
Labor also promised to end no-grounds evictions and hand more power to renters – but that bill is yet to materialise.
The Inner West council mayor, Darcy Byrne, on Sunday called on fellow Labor politicians to bring back parliament to end no-grounds evictions “immediately”.
Poker machine reform
One of the defining issues of the campaign ahead of Labor’s election was driven by the then premier Dominic Perrottet’s push to introduce cashless gaming cards on all poker machines.
Minns resisted the proposal but eventually promised to run a trial. His government set up an independent panel that includes Clubs NSW representatives, law enforcement and harm minimisation groups to oversee it.
“Venues are currently having the technology installed on their gaming machines and will soon begin signing up participants,” a spokesperson for the gaming minister, David Harris, said.
Despite the trial, there is no guarantee the government will introduce cashless gaming, which has disappointed those calling for reform. NSW residents lost $4.3bn to poker machines over six months in 2022. Political donations from clubs involved in gaming have been banned in the state.
Cost of living
Soaring energy prices, interest rates and rising weekly grocery bills brought cost of living to the forefront before the election.
Labor promised to improve overall living conditions, partly by scrapping the public sector wage cap and introducing a toll relief scheme.
The government delivered more than $8.2bn in cost-of-living support in its first budget, including daycare and energy rebates, but did not fund a number of voucher schemes introduced under the previous government.
Speakman said families were “worse off” under Minns.
Groups including the NSW Council of Social Service pointed to the housing crisis as the biggest cost-of-living issue.
“This next budget is where that will really play out,” the Ncoss chief executive, Cara Varian, said.
Wages
Labor last year delivered on its election promise to tear up the Coalition’s public sector wage cap.
It announced in September it would set aside $3.6bn over four years for public sector pay rises.
Labor also committed to funding pay rises for public school teachers, which it hopes will lead to better retention.
But pay disputes continue to plague the government.
After introducing reforms in December – including restoring powers to the Industrial Relations Commission – Labor is dealing with a dispute between the state’s firefighters and their employer, Fire and Rescue NSW.
Transport
Labor introduced a $60 weekly toll cap, however, its broader vow to undo the “tollmania” plaguing Sydney remains in its early stages.
The government is yet to say if it will adopt recommendations by the review it launched into the city’s patchwork toll network, which advised introducing two-directional fees to the harbour crossings and the Eastern Distributor.
The plan to raise more revenue from drivers in the east to allow the state to charge less for motorists in the city’s west – something it hasn’t been able to do due to locked in long-term contracts with private operator Transurban – could prove unpopular in some electorates.
On buses, promises to deal with the negative effects of the Coalition’s privatisation push are also yet to be realised, although a bus taskforce has flagged reviving axed services, adding new major routes and creating incentives to address the driver shortage.
The government is also pushing ahead with the Metro West line and has so far signalled its intention to add an extra stop at Rosehill, as part of the potential housing development.
While it will enjoy the ribbon cutting of the Coalition’s hard work on the new Metro Southwest opening this year, it has had to deal with the mess of the opening of the controversial Rozelle interchange and related traffic chaos.
Labor is also yet to follow through on a pledge to the Guardian to refresh decades-old intercity train carriages that block phone reception. They are still in service due to delayed delivery of the Coalition’s replacement rolling stock.
Environment
Labor enshrined in law greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. The government bowed to pressure from the Greens and the Coalition to strengthen the interim target.
Under the laws, the state’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 was set and an independent advisory panel to monitor progress will be established.
Labor has also promised to create the Great Koala national park in northern NSW. Despite the pledge, logging has continued, with just 5% of the proposed park protected as high-value koala habitat.
The government is also under pressure to explain why mulch contaminated with asbestos was able to be spread across dozens of Sydney locations, with campaigners and whistleblowers calling for tighter regulations for construction waste recycling.
Treaty
Harris, also the Aboriginal affairs minister, insisted the government was still committed to consultation with Aboriginal communities about a treaty process after the government announced it would not progress past that step in this term following the crushing national referendum defeat.
“This consultation will provide a first step by asking Aboriginal communities across NSW if treaty or an agreement-making process would be desirable, and what this process should look like,” a spokesperson for the minister said.
“NSW has signed up to the Closing the Gap targets because the status quo just isn’t good enough for our state’s the 300,000-strong Aboriginal community.”
The government has faced significant criticism from Aboriginal community groups and justice reform advocates after it rushed a bill through parliament to make it easier to hold teenagers on remand.
Crime
The Minns government has tackled major crime and policing issues over its first year.
Five people were shot in five days during a gang war in July last year, which began when prominent underworld figure Alen Moradian was shot dead in broad daylight in Bondi Junction.
Labor has also come under pressure to act on regional crime and youth offending, after complaints of escalating motor vehicle theft and break-and-enters.
The government this month announced laws that would make it harder for some teen offenders to get bail.
The police minister, Yasmin Catley, has faced criticism for her handling of key issues, including the death of Clare Nowland. The 95-year-old with dementia died in hospital after she was Tasered by a police officer at her nursing home in May 2023.
Earlier this month, Nowland’s family reached a confidential settlement in their civil case against the NSW government.
Law enforcement
A number of other high-profile Tasering and shooting incidents have increased pressure on the government to reform the police force and criminal justice systems.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has made dozens of recommendations over the past year, including strengthening training for officers and mandating more body-worn cameras.
Last week, NSW police rejected calls from the commission to update training and protocols for officers on the use of force, especially when handcuffing children.
The government has taken steps to bring prisons back into state ownership and pledged to improve the system after an inquiry into jailed rapist prison guard Wayne Astill uncovered serious flaws in the state’s justice system.
Integrity in government
Labor went to the election promising better transparency and accountability in government. But four months in, Minns sacked one of his ministers for failing to disclose a potential conflict of interest.
The Newcastle MP, Tim Crakanthorp, was dumped from cabinet and referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) after failing to disclose “substantial” holdings in his family’s Newcastle property empire. The Icac investigation is ongoing.
Barrister Geoffrey Watson SC, the director of the Centre of Public Integrity, told the Guardian he thought the government handled the Crakanthorp matter “well”.
Watson also pointed to questions over whether the finance minister, Courtney Houssos, had a conflict of interest in her former role leading the insurance regulator because of her husband’s role at the Insurance Council of Australia.
Houssos was responsible for the State Insurance Regulatory Authority from May until the responsibility was reallocated to another minister.
Asked about the matter at a budget estimates hearing in November, Houssos said: “There is no conflict and there never has been. We had robust plans in place in accordance with the ministerial code, and I am no longer the minister responsible”.
Watson thought the matter was “eventually” handled well.
The government has also come under pressure over the controversial hiring of former Labor staffer Josh Murray to lead the transport department and its abandoned attempt to extend the Racing NSW chairman’s term for an unprecedented third time.
Drug reform
Despite repeated promises to hold a drug reform summit, the government has failed to announce a date and a plan for the event, which the premier said on several occasions was needed before any more drug reforms were considered.
Minns has pushed back against calls to enact other reforms such as pill testing at music festivals.
The health minister, Ryan Park, said the summit was “fully funded and it will take place”.
The government did introduce changes, backed by the Coalition, to allow people caught with small quantities of illicit drugs for personal use to be issued with fines they can work off by seeking help instead of facing criminal penalties.
