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AAP
AAP
Politics
Luke Costin and Duncan Murray

NSW Liberals to seed $400 future accounts for children

Premier Dominic Perrottet has used a Liberal Party campaign launch to promise a major investment in the future of young people.

If it wins the next election, the coalition will create savings funds for all young people to spend on housing and education when they turn 18.

Mr Perrottet called it the most significant financial security investment in NSW history and said it would cost the government around $850 million.

He was joined by Liberal party faithful and key candidates in Sydney's southwestern suburbs for the party's official campaign launch on Sunday.

Under a coalition government, every child currently aged 10 and under in 2023 in NSW, and every newborn thereafter, will receive a fund with a starting investment of $400, the father of seven announced.

Parents and carers can make additional payments of up to $1000 into the accounts which the government will match to the tune of up to $400 a year, resulting in savings of between $28,000 and $49,000, depending how additional savings are added.

Claiming to be the underdog in the the poll, the premier said it was his party's responsible financial and economic management that would "keep NSW moving forward".

"I know that every single parent here today and across the state shares one thing in common and that is that from the moment our children are born we worry about them and would do anything to ensure that they have a better opportunity than we have," he said.

Mr Perrottet also announced a further $1.2 billion Investment in public schools, creating a $19 billion pipeline for new and upgraded schools.

The highest Liberal in the country, Peter Dutton, was notably absent from Sunday's launch, but former prime minister, John Howard, 83, attended and received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the crowd.

Labor on Sunday announced a plan to ease the cost of rising electricity bills for small businesses and NSW families and households under a proposed $485 million Energy Relief Fund.

Under the plan eligible NSW small businesses will receive $315 off their energy bill and when matched by funding from the Commonwealth government's rebate scheme around 320,000 small businesses will get $630 off their bills.

The fund would also mean NSW households hit hard by energy price rises would receive $250 off their energy bill and when matched with $250 from the Commonwealth's Energy Bill Relief Fund, around 1.6 million eligible households will get $500 off their bills.

"Labor's plan gets the balance right between short term, targeted relief and long term reform to fix the energy crisis. And under Labor there will be no more privatisation," Labor leader Chris Minns said in a statement.

The Greens on Saturday outlined their demands if Labor needed their support to form government.

Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt endorsed a pledge to scrap the proposed Narrabri Gas Project and related pipeline through the Hunter.

The project is on track to be completed in 2026 and is projected to eventually supply half of NSW's gas.

"We cannot afford new coal and gas. It's deadly, it's dangerous and it will cost us the earth," federal Greens leader Adam Bandt told the party faithful in Sydney.

Labor dismissed talk of minority government, focusing on winning the required 47 seats to rule in their own right.

"The only way to guarantee a change of government ... is to vote for a Labor candidate on the 25th of March," Mr Minns said on Saturday.

With redistributions and resignations, the coalition has claims on 45 seats, Labor 38, the Greens three and independents seven in the 93-seat lower house.

Some 562 candidates are running in the lower house, with a candidate from Labor, the Greens and either the Nationals or the Liberals in every seat.

The Nationals and Liberals will face off in independent-held Wagga Wagga and Port Macquarie, held by National-turned-Liberal Leslie Williams.

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