The housing construction industry is going off a cliff and an extra 10,000 places for new builds under the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme is not enough to save it.
Labor has been calling on the Government to expand this scheme since May.
The Government has been dragged kicking and screaming to this announcement, but it has fallen short by putting a cap of 10,000 on the number of people it will help under this scheme to build a new home.
Under Labor’s plan, we would get rid of this cap and help every first home buyer who wants to build a new home and meets the income and purchase price requirements of the scheme.
If the Morrison Government was serious about helping first home buyers and tradies in the housing construction industry, they would scrap this cap and help every first home buyer who wants to build a new home and meets the other requirements of the scheme.
They should also fix their bungled HomeBuilder Scheme which is too small and rolling out too slowly.
In August Treasury revealed not a single dollar had been spent on the scheme, and now the Minister for Housing has refused to release updated figures on how many people have actually applied.
If the Government was serious about helping tradies in the housing construction industry they would also invest more money in social housing.
This would be a win-win. It will keep more tradies working and it will help put a roof over the head of Australians who desperately need it.
The Government needs to pull their head out of the sand, scrap the cap and help save the jobs of thousands of Aussie tradies.
SATURDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2020
