The New South Wales and Queensland state budgets released yesterday were a picture in contrasts.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey was unequivocal on the central role of energy transition in economic growth and prosperity. Mookhey emphasised that the renewables transition is a top driver of investment into the state, with renewable energy infrastructure a significant contributor to the 20% surge in investment over the year to the March quarter 2026.
He noted that clean energy transformation is ‘not merely an environmental cause, but an economic strategy’, and that to campaign against renewables, as his counterparts elsewhere and in previous governments have done, is to campaign against investment and jobs.
Home Energy Saver program
A centrepiece of the 2026-27 NSW budget was $557 million (previously announced) under the Home Energy Saver program to households with interest-free loans of up to $15,000 over ten years to install energy-saving and cost-cutting upgrades.
