Western Sydney critical infrastructure still missing<\/a><\/p>\nThe M7-M12 interchange in Western Sydney is set to open soon, but advocates say the surrounding suburbs are still missing crucial infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The government points to “green shoots” in the data, boasting 13,358 housing completions in the December quarter, representing a six-year-high.<\/p>\n
The seasonally adjusted figure from the Australian Bureau of Statistics was 12,194, but it was still an improvement on the year before.<\/p>\n
With the election just over nine months away, the premier will need to show a continued upward trajectory to convince voters his planning reforms are bearing fruit.<\/p>\n
“We’re starting to see, finally, the first signs of growth,” he said.<\/p>\n
Don’t expect ‘miracles’<\/p>\n
This month’s state budget will be the last before the election.<\/p>\n
While it presents an ideal opportunity for sweeteners in the form of cost-of-living relief, the premier is deliberately keeping voters’ appetites in check.<\/p>\n
“Families are under enormous amounts of pressure,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ll have more to say on budget day, but we’re somewhat limited by the tight economics that we’re in.”<\/p>\n
In other words, any cost of living relief will be modest to avoid accusations the government is stoking inflation and, by extension, interest rates.<\/p>\n
“We’ll do what we can, but we can’t promise miracles,” he said.<\/p>\n
With its focus on spending restraint, the government’s ability to excite voters is similarly limited.<\/p>\n
![\"NSW](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2609d307d74c716f872464fd7c506294.jpeg\")
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The premier’s ability to provide sweeteners in the upcoming budget is “limited by the tight economics”. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n
While the opposition has vowed to build at least one new metro, location and funding to be confirmed, the premier has a far more modest offering.<\/p>\n
“Our vision is we want to live in a state where people can afford to buy a home.<\/p>\n
“Where we can build life-changing infrastructure without selling off assets, and we can balance the budget without putting a wages cap in place that smashes hundreds of thousands of hard-working men and women in New South Wales.”<\/p>\n
As nice as that may sound, it’s remarkably similar to the vision he outlined for his first term.<\/p>\n
When asked whether voters wanted a “steady as she goes” government, he said he had “no idea”.<\/p>\n
“We’ll find out in March next year.”<\/p>\n
No early exit<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the premier caused concern at Labor head office \u2014 and delight at Liberal HQ \u2014 when he publicly declared he wouldn’t be premier in 2032.<\/p>\n
Assuming he wins in March, that would mean he either planned to step down during the next term, or just months into his third term.<\/p>\n
Or, he didn’t think he could win two more elections.<\/p>\n
![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/aa104b8fa9696d6bd69eba1e23fe26a8.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The premier stresses that while he hopes to get re-elected, it’s not in his power. (ABC News: Simon Amery)<\/p>\n
The opposition declared the premier had given up on NSW and had “no long-term plan” to lead the state.<\/p>\n
Days later, during questioning in a budget estimates hearing, he attempted to clear up the confusion, saying he would “love” to serve a full term.<\/p>\n
While some Labor MPs still privately believe he’ll make an early exit, the premier told Stateline he would stay put.<\/p>\n
“My reticence in relation to this is genuinely born of the fact that I hope to get re-elected, but it’s not in my power,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If I was honoured enough to get re-elected, then I would stick around for the full term.”<\/p>\n
Giving that commitment is easy enough, but keeping it could be harder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Minns knows voters don’t want a complacent premier, but in the face of One Nation’s surge, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,4919,3545,24320,6872,10405,1103,1955,1926],"class_list":["post-26070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-coalition","tag-housing","tag-housing-accord","tag-immigration","tag-nsw-labor","tag-nsw-premier-chris-minns","tag-one-nation","tag-pauline-hanson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Labor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/caa98ec3fc97449346032eebfc4ceb62.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"nsw](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5d0c94711dd716850e26ca4560e55aea.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n