Peta Credlin:
I’m joined now by the Minister responsible, the Housing Minister, Michael Sukkar. Michael, these are pretty fantastic figures, I mean they’re outstanding. I’ve got to say that they’re outstanding figures so well done to you.
Give me the split between new homes and renovations and what’s been the impact, not just on jobs, but have we got new apprenticeships out of this in order to keep up with the demand?
Minister Sukkar:
Great to be with you, Peta. These are obviously phenomenal results and exceeded our expectations. The program has seen 120,000 projects and about 80 per cent of them are new builds and 20 per cent are substantial renovations. If we think back to last year, Peta, when the pandemic hit, new home sales just stopped overnight and if you’re not selling new homes, you’re not building them and all of the trades and the supply chain that is involved in the residential construction industry, comes to a stop. The Master Builders Association, the Housing Industry Association, were very, very concerned that hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost as a result of the residential construction industry coming to a grinding halt. That’s why we put in place HomeBuilder. We were hopeful with HomeBuilder that it would at least ensure the industry maintained pre-pandemic levels of new home sales and new home builds. Never did we think that the HomeBuilder program would lead to a 30 per cent increase, stronger than pre-pandemic. The $25,000 grant, its driven first home buyers who are now at their highest level for nearly fifteen years. Owner-occupiers, people who are buying those homes for themselves, are dominating the market, they’re now three quarters of the market and dominating investors.
It has protected, most importantly, the hundreds of thousands of jobs in the construction industry. And it’s not just the bricklayers and the carpenters and the tilers onsite but the manufacturing workers who make the bricks and the tile and the glass, the timber mill workers who make the frames and the trusses. I mean it’s a huge ecosystem of workers and the HomeBuilder program has protected those up to 1 million jobs. As I’ve seen around the place, Peta, to get to your last question, builders now have a pipeline of work of two to three years which means that they’re taking that crucial decision to take on an apprentice or two and they’re obviously being supported by the apprentice wage subsidy scheme as well. So we’re building for a future as well as protecting the industry for today.
Peta Credlin:
It’s so good to hear that and particularly new builds, particularly first home buyers because we know that’s a lot of small to mediums in that first building category. I was a bit dubious of the rennos, it doesn’t surprise me that they’re 20 per cent out of that 100, the 80 is in the new builds.
What do you say to critics who are out there saying ‘look, they were always going to spend the cash, once people can’t travel overseas they were always going to spend the money around the home’. What do you say to that?
Minister Sukkar:
Well the Labor Party said this was too little, too late. The Labor Party, in fact the Leader of the Opposition said this would just fund pearl taps and gold baths. The Leader of the Opposition should get out to more building sites as I have and meet the young, first buyer couples – in most cases – who are purchasing their first homes. Many of them have said to me that the HomeBuilder grant was the difference between buying a home and not, getting out of that rental cycle. It obviously compliments the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme which we’ve also put in place which helps first home buyers purchase a home with a 5 per cent deposit. We saw this as a great opportunity to yes, protect those million jobs in the residential construction industry, but also get new people into their first home. The idea now that with 20:20 hindsight that when the pandemic hit, this wasn’t a risk and it wasn’t a threat is just disingenuous. The Master Builders Association was predicting new home builds of 115,000 this financial year. We’ll now see new home builds of 195,000. Every one of those new homes represents at least 32 full time jobs through all the trades and through all the manufacturing.
Peta Credlin:
It’s fantastic.
Minister Sukkar:
People just have to turn their mind back twelve months and what the industry and indeed what the economy was facing was quite scary and that’s why the HomeBuilder program has been so successful and indeed has performed above our expectations.
Peta Credlin:
I want to know now with the budget around the corner, how’s your arm twisting going with Josh Frydenberg? Do you think you’ll get an extension?
Minister Sukkar:
We’re not planning on extending the scheme, the scheme has done its job. The scheme has protected those jobs, we’ve now got a pipeline of work, as I said, of 18 months to two years, some builders are saying even three years of work that they will now be able to effectively plan for. So it’s done its job, we’ve always said that in response to the pandemic, our economic responses would be timely and targeted. This has been very targeted, it’s been timely, it’s come to an end and we’re now looking and examining how the industry is going to manage this pipeline and workflow. Obviously they’ve got a lot of work to do and there’s tight timeframes involved so we’re keeping a real close eye on that but we have, I think, really exciting days ahead for an industry that I think that many Australians are proud of. When you drive past a building site and see young people working hard and building something as tangible as somebody’s home, I think that it makes all Australians rightly feel good about our country and our economy.
Peta Credlin:
And nothing focusses the mind about the future as having to pay a mortgage. It’s really good for the values of a country, if nothing else too, Michael Sukkar. So well done, 400 per cent better than Treasury expected you would do, so take a bow. Thanks for your time tonight.
Minister Sukkar:
Thanks so much, Peta.