New South Wales Treasurer Dominic Perrottet

Get Ready For A New Year Of Savings

Victor P Taffa

New South Wales Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has urged people to ring in the New Year by taking advantage of a suite of new savings.

Treasurer Perrottet today said the arrival of the New Year meant new rebates and initiatives would soon be available to help ease cost of living pressures for people across the State, thanks to years of strong financial management.

January 1, 2019 will see the arrival of the New South Wales Government’s Baby Bundle and the roll-out of the $100 Creative Kids voucher to name just a few.

Treasurer Perrottet said there were New Year savings to be had across the board and encouraged people to take advantage of new and existing cost of living measures.

“On the top of everyone’s New Year’s resolution list is the goal to save more money. As ever our top goal is to reduce the financial burden even further for the people of New South Wales and these measures are doing just that.” Treasurer Perrottet said.

Other New Year measures providing hip-pocket relief include:

• Extending universal education access to preschool for three-year-old’s, making New South Wales the first state in Australia to do so, providing an average saving for families of $825 a year from 1 January 2019.
• From 31 January, 2019 motorists will be given a 10-minute grace period when they pay for a minimum of 1 hour of parking, applies to ticketed and coupon parking. To avoid impacts on safety and congestion, the grace period will not apply to areas such as bus lanes, clearways, transit lanes, etc.
• From 1 March 2019 Councils and Universities across the New South Wales will have the flexibility to lower their most common parking fines from $112 to $80.
• New South Wales Government’s introduction of 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave per year for New South Wales public sector employees, including teachers, nurses and Police from 1 January 2019.
• From January 1, 2019 parents and caregivers in New South Wales will receive a bag of essentials containing important health information, valued at $300, to help take care of their precious babies.
• As of January 1, 2019, parents of school-aged children will be able to access the $100 Creative Kids Rebate in addition to the hugely popular $100 Active Kids Rebate.
• Expansion of the Toll Relief package with more than 300,000 drivers eligible for either half-priced or free rego from July 1, 2019, if they spend $15 or more a week on tolls.

Treasurer Perrottet said in 2018 the New South Wales Government gave back more than $200 Million to people in New South Wales through its various cost of living rebates and incentives including:

• 400,000 people downloaded the real-time FuelCheck app, which could save drivers $500 a year.
• 665,000 Active Kids vouchers were issued.
• Introduction of CTP reforms saving motorists around $120 per year on their Green Slips. The average premium is expected to drop to $500 from January 2019.
• First Homebuyers stamp duty concessions
• Indexing Stamp Duty to CPI, which will in the future save homebuyers thousands.
• Introduction of the EnergySwitch comparison website helping people save hundreds on their power bills.
• Caravan rego rebate delivering grey nomads, families and adventurers a 40 % discount when they register their caravans and camper trailers.

“These fantastic initiatives are only possible because of our strong financial management and commitment to take the pressure off the family budget.” Treasurer Perrottet said.

“Only a Liberals & Nationals Government can afford to deliver real savings that help the working families of New South Wales and reduce barriers to people leading healthy lifestyles.”

“This is about putting money back into the pockets of hard-working people right across New South Wales.”

“In contrast, previous Labor governments have been more focused on using office to line their own pockets instead.” Treasurer Perrottet said.

 

Abbreviations:

CTP                 Compulsory Third Party

CPI                  Consumer Party Index