NSW Budget Estimates 2026-27: what to watch and why this round matters

Why this round is different

Every year, NSW Budget Estimates gives the Legislative Council’s Portfolio Committees the chance to interrogate the government about how it’s spending public money. Ministers appear, senior bureaucrats answer, and everything goes on the Hansard record.

This year, the stakes are higher than usual.

Election context

The NSW state election is scheduled for 13 March 2027. These are the last Budget Estimates hearings before the election. Once caretaker conventions apply — expected from late January 2027 — the formal mechanisms for putting the government on the record will be limited. August 2026 is the final substantive window. 

For government-facing teams, this means the hearings serve a dual function. They’re the usual intelligence source — agencies revealing budget positions, programs, performance data. But they’re also a pre-election accountability moment, where unresolved issues get their last formal airing before the political landscape changes.

How NSW Budget Estimates works

NSW Budget Estimates is run by the Legislative Council’s eight Portfolio Committees (PC 1–8). Each committee is responsible for a cluster of government portfolios, and hearings typically run from 9.15am to 5.30pm — long, full-day sessions.

Ministers appear alongside their departmental secretaries and senior officials. Senators— here, Members of the Legislative Council — can ask about anything within the portfolio’s remit. There’s no strict relevance requirement: operations, spending, staffing, policy implementation, and program performance are all fair game.

Everything is recorded and published as a Hansard transcript. Questions placed on notice — where officials promise a written answer — are published over the following weeks.

2026-27 hearing schedule

The following portfolios are scheduled across the initial hearings period, 18 August – 1 September 2026:

Date

Portfolio / Minister

Committee

Note

Mon 18 Aug

Customer Service & Digital Government, Emergency Services, Youth Justice (Dib)

PC 8

Mon 18 Aug

Education and Early Learning (Car)

PC 3

Mon 18 Aug

Health, Regional Health (Park)

PC 2

Mon 18 Aug

Premier and Finance (Minns)

PC 1

Premier appears

Tue 19 Aug

Treasurer (Mookhey)

PC 1

Tue 19 Aug

Families and Communities, Disability Inclusion (Washington)

PC 5

Wed 20 Aug

Lands and Property, Multiculturalism, Sport, Jobs and Tourism (Kamper)

PC 4

Thu 21 Aug

Women, Seniors, Domestic Violence (Harrison)

PC 5

Wed 26 Aug

Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty, Gaming and Racing, Veterans, Medical Research (Harris)

PC 1

Wed 26 Aug

Customer Service, Emergency Services (Dib)

PC 8

Mon 31 Aug

Transport, Arts, Music and Night-time Economy (Graham)

PC 6

Tue 1 Sep

Agriculture, Regional NSW, Western NSW (Moriarty)

PC 4

Final day

How to find the full schedule

The complete hearing schedule — including room allocations, exact timings, and links to transcripts as they’re published — is available at parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/Pages/budget-estimates.aspx

The committees and portfolios worth watching

The eight Portfolio Committees cover distinct portfolio clusters. The most watched by GR professionals vary by sector, but several portfolios consistently attract significant scrutiny:

PC 1 — Premier and Finance

PremierMinns appears alongside Treasury, Finance, Industrial Relations, NaturalResources, and Aboriginal Affairs. In an election year, the Premier’s hearingis particularly significant — it’s the most politically charged day of thecalendar and often generates the most media coverage. The Treasurer (Mookhey)also appears through PC 1.

PC 2 — Health

Healthand Regional Health (Minister Park) covering NSW Health, Local HealthDistricts, and health agencies. Health is consistently one of the mostinterrogated portfolios at Estimates and one of the largest areas of NSWgovernment expenditure.

PC 7 — Planning and Environment

Planningand Public Spaces (Minister Scully) and Climate Change, Energy, the Environmentand Heritage (Minister Sharpe). With housing supply and planning reform as acentral government priority, this committee is likely to face significantcrossbench scrutiny in 2026.

PC 5 — Justice and Communities

Familiesand Communities, Disability Inclusion, Women, Seniors, Police and CounterTerrorism, and Attorney-General. A broad portfolio cluster that covers some ofthe most politically contested areas of government service delivery.

What to look for as an advocate

Program delivery and spending

Areagencies spending what they said they would? Are programs on track? Questionsabout program status — especially for commitments made in the 2026-27 budget —will surface throughout the hearings.

Questions on notice as a delayed intelligencelayer

Someof the most useful material doesn’t come out in the hearings themselves.Agencies take hundreds of questions on notice, and the written answers —published on each committee’s inquiry page over the following weeks — oftencontain more specific data than what’s said on the day. Build time into yourcalendar to review QoNs from the portfolios relevant to you.

Pre-election positioning

Withthe election eight months away, Estimates hearings tend to be more politicallycharged. Opposition and crossbench MLC questions will likely be structured togenerate material for the campaign. How the government responds — and what itavoids — is itself intelligence about what it considers politically vulnerable.

Supplementary and additional hearings

Theinitial hearings in August-September are not the only round. NSW BudgetEstimates also has supplementary hearings (typically December) and additionalhearings (February-March 2027). However, given the March 2027 election, theFebruary-March additional hearings may be compressed or modified — watch theparliament website for updates.

How to follow along

•    Live webcast — hearings are broadcast live at parliament.nsw.gov.au/Pages/webcasts.aspx

•    Video recordings — available on the NSW Parliament YouTube channel(@NSWParliamentOfficial) the afternoon of the next business day

•    Transcripts — published the morning after each hearing day on therelevant Portfolio Committee inquiry page at parliament.nsw.gov.au

•    Questions on notice — answers published on the committee inquiry page asthey’re received, typically 3–4 weeks after hearings

Track NSW Estimates without the manual work

Advoc8 monitors NSW Budget Estimates hearings, transcripts and questions on notice across all Portfolio Committees — so your team never misses the intelligence that matters to your portfolio areas. Book a demo to see how it works.

\