Penny-pinching NSW budget lacks vision and offers few solutions to state’s most pressing problems

Toll relief will run out for Sydney motorists by 1 January. A likely outcome will be higher tolls on the Harbour Bridge and the eastern suburbs, with some cuts to tolls in the city’s west. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The Minns Labor government’s third budget is one of consolidation, careful management, penny-pinching and modest spending. This budget will please the ratings agencies, and those who value New South Wales’s AAA rating.

But it is not for those who hoped to see a bold vision for NSW or big steps forward to deal with some of the state’s and the nation’s most pressing problems: a cost-of-living crunch, housing crisis, climate emergency and other environmental challenges.