The main purpose of this Briefing Book is to provide Members of Parliament, new Members in particular, with a brief but authoritative account of key issues in NSW politics, providing relevant context and legislative history.

State issues are ones that affect people most directly, health and education, transport and public safety, housing and child protection. The paper is organised around these and other core subjects of perennial concern.

Alongside these are topics of particular current interest. Central to the 2015 election campaign were policy debates about coal seam gas and the partial privatisation of the “poles and wires”. This last debate spills over into one about infrastructure, how it is to be funded and what is to be built. Ice addiction is one social issue discussed in the Briefing Book; domestic violence, alcohol-related violence and bail laws also feature.

The first chapter presents a portrait of NSW, highlighting the culturally diverse polity that it has become, reviewing whatever progress has been made in “closing the gap” for Indigenous peoples, as well as offering a snapshot of State finances and the economy.

Chapter 2 focuses on politics whereas the other chapters are grouped around such key policy areas as:

· transport
· energy
· environment
· social issues and
· crime and justice.