Good morning.
Wet and mild today. The bureau forecasts a top of 25 degrees in the city, the same in Parramatta and partial cloudiness and a 50 per cent chance of slight rain.
New Year's peeved
Spare a thought for the hundreds of Sydneysiders who spent New Year's Eve sitting cheek-to-jowl, suffering from terrible views and limited access to alcohol.
No, they weren't on the harbour foreshore. More than 800 passengers were affected by airline delays that seriously crimped their New Year's Eve plans. They have been given meal vouchers.
A very Sydney court case
A classic Sydney dispute has been playing out in court. Two neighbours are battling it out over the right to a spectacular harbour view.
The law that settles these disputes is also known as the Disputes Between Neighbours Act.
Compensation challenges worthwhile
Is your home one of thousands in the sights of a state government looking to make room for its massive to-do list of infrastructure projects?
It might make sense to reject whatever offer they make to buy you out, a new analysis has found.
In a sample of more than 50 cases over the past decade, the parliament's library found that challenging the government's compensation offer in court brought a 50 per cent increase on the initial offer.
The issue of compulsory acquisition of property has been red-hot in state politics in the past year.
Reproduction down
A new report into giving birth in NSW unearths some interesting trends.
Overall, the state is reproducing slightly less. The number of births overall in NSW fell from 97,245 in 2011 to 96,391 in 2015 - a decrease of 0.9 per cent.
In health news, fewer mothers are smoking but more are grappling with gestational diabetes.
Ahead of time
The state government reckons that a key plank of its Westconnex motorway is on track to be completed ahead of schedule.
Under tentative plans for the gateway, a motorway of two lanes each way to the airport would split much closer to St Peters in Sydney's inner west than originally envisaged. One arm of the new roadway would connect to the international terminal and the other to the domestic terminals known as T2 and T3.
The state government won't give exact details but says the development could now be completed before 2023, which is to say ahead of schedule.
Housing Affordability
The state's opposition has made a strong signal about its priorities for the new year, challenging the state government to do something about housing affordability and saying that "nothing is not an option".
The question is what.
Labor wants an improved planning system, more affordable housing targets, addressing the public housing backlog and reconsidering reductions to first home buyers grants.
However, NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes hit back, saying the state was in the midst of a record construction boom and that Labor had to accept blame for previous ALP governments presiding over years of under-investment in housing.
