The NSW government is three days away from handing down its final budget before the 2023 election with billions already promised to young families, the healthcare sector, the bush and the environment.
On Friday the government pledged a further $270 million to Sydney research facilities in a bid to make the city the world's leading biomedical research hub.
"We want to see our best scientists turn their ideas into the next breakthrough technologies," NSW Treasurer Matt Kean said.
"If we crack the next breakthrough technology, the sky is the limit."
Friday also saw $180 million committed to the government's 10-year Marine Estate Management Strategy, to fund projects for coastal communities recovering from natural disasters.
Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders said NSW was the only state addressing threats to its coast by bringing together fishers, farmers, environmentalists and scientists.
"You can't grow oysters in polluted estuaries, explore our coastline if beaches are closed, or improve our farming systems without repairing riverbanks and waterways," he told AAP.
Some $50 million over 10 years was also committed on Friday to Fire and Rescue NSW stations for building bathrooms and changerooms in a bid to attract women firefighters into the industry.
"Upgrading and installing female bathrooms and change rooms at FRNSW stations is a vital part of attracting more women to firefighting and strengthening our frontline emergency services," Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said.
Some $32.9 million has been pledged for the conservation of rare plant and animal species on Lord Howe Island off the NSW coast.
The promise follows other budget announcements throughout the week, including a $5.8 billion promise to provide a free preschool place for every four or five-year-old in NSW, five days a week, by 2030.
The announcement was called "the greatest transformation of early education in a generation", in a joint statement from NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and his Victorian counterpart Daniel Andrews.
"Every child in Victoria and NSW will experience the benefits of a full year of play-based learning before their first year of school," the premiers said.
"We will ensure that our kids get the best social outcomes (and) the best educational outcomes," Mr Perrottet told reporters on Thursday.
On Wednesday the government also pledged $1.4 billion to childcare funding over four years, to subsidise fees for public and private preschools.
Mr Perrottet said the upcoming budget will focus on removing barriers to women participating in the workforce.
Some $883 million was also committed over four years to attracting health staff to regional and rural NSW, including $10,000 incentives for workers to take up or keep their jobs in the bush.
Opposition Leader Chris Minns said the budget situation was precarious as the state faced its largest-ever deficit of $160 billion.
"That's the largest (debt) New South Wales has ever seen in absolute terms, as well as a percentage of gross state product," Mr Minns said on Friday.
The annual interest payable on that debt is equivalent to the entire police budget, the opposition leader said, and the premier and treasurer have announced $30 billion in new spending over the last week.
"If it's not progressively paid down in this budget, and the next one, we're going to continue to add to the debt that we hand off like a bad present to future generations of taxpayers."
© AAP 2022
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