Leon Byner:
The HomeBuilder commencement timeframe extension announced by the Morrison Government is a very big relief for the building industry which, due to extraordinary high demand, is facing shortages in trades and timber, and we know that’s been said more than once by the Master Builders. So let’s talk to the Federal Minister for Housing, Michael Sukkar. Michael, thanks for joining us today.
Minister Sukkar:
Good morning, Leon. Thanks for having me.
Leon Byner:
Before I get onto the specific thing of housing, you’d be aware of these shortage. Are we able to do anything as a nation to bolster this?
Minister Sukkar:
Well look, Leon, I know that the industry, whether it’s the Forrest Products Association or others are examining ways in which they can increase capacity. A lot of the capacity constrains in the mills in particular are because of the capital, there are some other issues associated with timber supplies, particularly from areas that suffered in the bushfires. I know for example, a timber mill near Colac in Victoria has just put on 100 staff, they are working around the clock so they are literally getting every piece of what they can out of their mill. Obviously the unprecedented demand caused by the HomeBuilder program has pleasantly surprised everybody. Now yes, it’s causing a bit of stress but when we think back to this time last year and potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost in the residential construction industry, we’re in a much stronger position today. Having to grapple with questions like yours about how we get a bit more supply, is actually a good question when you think back to probably when you and I were talking twelve months ago and really worrying about what was going to happen.
Leon Byner:
So have we got a plan B?
Minister Sukkar:
Well, Leon, this is part of the reason why we made the important announcement on the weekend to extend the commencement timeframes from six to 18 months. So a twelve month additional extension. It basically means, for your listeners, that if you’ve signed up, you’ve bought your first home, you’ve got your $25,000 or $15,000 grant from the Federal Government, that you now have longer to commence that project. Now we quite deliberately, Leon, put in very tight commencement timeframes at the beginning because this was all about getting people on building sites immediately. But now as the program has got so big – 12,000 here in South Australian alone, 120,000 nationally – spreading that work out over a longer period of time is a way that we’re now able to manage that workload for all of the builders and to make sure that nobody misses out on the grant, importantly.
Leon Byner:
So that extension will help people who are worried that they might have missed out because of timing?
Minister Sukkar:
Absolutely. I was with a young couple on the weekend and their child, who were going to miss out by about five weeks they said. They were really disappointed. They were going to miss the timeframe by five weeks before their slab could be poured. Obviously we made the change which now ensures that they have ample time to do that. But that was being replicated all around the country, it’s not a South Australian specific thing, Leon. There are parts of the country that have not just shortages of material but we’ve got labour issues in some parts of regional Australia too, getting those tradies because they are literally so busy. We’ve also got issues with council approvals all throughout the country. That’s not a criticism of councils, there are regional parts of our country now that have had more people buying new homes under the HomeBuilder program than has probably been seen for many, many years so they’re just not geared up for handling that number of applications. The HomeBuilder program has been enormously successful, it’s created some problems that quite frankly, are nice to have, problems that…interrupted.
Leon Byner:
As long as you can fix them.
Minister Sukkar:
And we have. By extending the timeframe out, we can now smooth out that workload and make sure that everybody gets their grant. And importantly, the million Australians who are employed in the residential construction industry, now have a pipeline of work, in some cases, Leon, with builders I speak to, of two years, where they with confidence can plan, they can take on that extra apprentice because they know that they’ve got work for that apprentice for such a long period of time.
Leon Byner:
Thank you for updating us. That’s the Federal Minister for Housing, Michael Sukkar.