Yesterday in Parliament, Labor called on the Minister for Housing to extend and fix the HomeBuilder Scheme.
This includes lifting the price cap for new homes in places like Sydney.
Sydneysiders aren’t getting their fair share from this scheme at this moment. New South Wales is a third of the country’s population and only getting about a fifth of the grants.
The reason for this is pretty obvious – the price cap is too low for places like Sydney.
In response, the Minister for Housing said that changes to the scheme may be needed, telling the Parliament “there is no set and forget in this policy space”.
Change can’t come a minute too soon.
For months Labor and the housing construction industry have warned the Morrison Government that HomeBuilder is too small and more needs to be done to save tradies’ jobs.
Last financial year 170,000 new homes were built in Australia. Treasury confirmed in Estimates that this financial year it is expected to drop to 140,000 homes, and that’s with the HomeBuilder scheme factored in.
In other words, even with the HomeBuilder Scheme, the housing industry shrinks. That means job losses.
If the Government is serious about helping tradies in the housing construction industry, they need to also invest more money in social housing.
When the demand for private housing is down, it makes send to increase the investment in public housing. There is no lack of demand or need and it will help keep more tradies working.
TUESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: ARLEY BLACK 02 9790 2466
