Australian Labor Party Leader, Anthony Albanese, was in Bateau Bay on June 6 with Federal Member for Dobell, Emma McBride to show support for the housing and construction industry to kickstart the economic recovery for the Central Coast.
McBride said Labor had been calling for six weeks for stimulus in the housing and construction sector but the Government’s HomeBuilder program doesn’t go far enough to grow jobs or tackle housing affordability.
Albanese said a government investment in public and social housing or renovation would be a more practical solution in revitalising the construction industry on the Coast.
The HomeBuilder program, announced on June 4, will provide a $25,000 grant towards building a new home or substantial renovation between $150,000 to $750,000, until December 31, as long as eligibility criteria is met.
“Who on the Central Coast has a lazy $150,000 sitting around – it is out of reach,” McBride said.
“There’s almost 11,000 tradies on the Coast and 2,500 small and family businesses working in this sector and this stimulus measure will not help those people back on their feet.”
Albanese said the scheme was a “big flop”.
“My visit here has been a great opportunity to catch up with locals about some of the pressures that community are under,” he said.
“We know that we’re in a recession for the first time in three decades – that means people being unemployed, it means hardship.
“But it also means that the Government and the private sector need to work together to promote economic growth, to promote job creation once again.
“What we need is action but what we got was a big flop from this Government, a marketing slogan, rather than a plan to support jobs and to grow the economy.
“I don’t know how many people in Bateau Bay, or Wyong, or Ourimbah, have a lazy $150,000 set aside that they are able to get their planning done for renovations and get it through the approvals process, have the contracts signed between now and December.
“We will hold this Government to account for its big talk but small action,” Albanese said.
“You’ve got to wonder why this Government refused to provide any support whatsoever, not a dollar, for new social housing or renovating social housing,” he said.
“There also wasn’t a dollar for affordable housing for essential workers.
“We know there are over 400,000 Australians on waiting lists for social housing, and an obvious way to stimulate the economy, and a way in which you could do it while supporting apprentices and trainees as well, is to support new or renovated social housing.
“But not a single dollar.
“It’s absolutely vital at a time when we’ve been reminded that homeless people had to be put up in hotels because there was no social housing available for them to be housed during the coronavirus crisis, that we actually need to put this investment in.
“And the other difference is, if we put investment into social housing in places like the Central Coast, it’s an investment that is retained in government ownership, so it increases the assets of the government.
“There’s nothing wrong with support for private housing but why is it that’s done at the exclusion of any public and social housing.
“That’s why this scheme is just completely flawed and why the Government needs to explain why it is that after such a big build-up there’s so little result from the Government’s announcement of the HomeBuilder program,” Albanese said.
He said a practical solution to high unemployment and youth unemployment on the Coast would be investment in housing that actually created jobs.
“There’ll be very little activity here on the Coast as a result of the announcement of the HomeBuilder scheme,” he said.
“We could have building of new housing units, renovation of public housing, support for affordable housing for essential workers, for nurses, for police, for emergency service workers closer to where they work.
“One of the things we know on the Coast is that so many people commute to work in Sydney – we need to look at job creation right here.
“And in construction, this is a lost opportunity – it’s a wasted opportunity – and it’s bad policy, and it won’t result in an outcome which is appropriate,” Albanese said.
Source: Interview Transcript, Jun 6, 2020 ALP Leader, Anthony Albanese – Federal Member for Dobell, Emma McBride