SENATOR JAMES PATERSON
ACTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
SENATOR FOR VICTORIA
Today, secret Treasury advice has confirmed what Australians already know: Labor will fail to build the 1.2 million new homes they promised.
According to the Federal Treasury, Labor’s National Housing Accord has failed.
The numbers don’t lie. Residential construction has gone backwards under the Albanese Government.
Under the former Coalition Government, Australia built an average of 190,000 new homes per year. Under Labor, that figure has dropped to barely 170,000. To meet their own housing target, Labor needs to build 250,000 new homes annually.
So far, Labor’s signature housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund, has spent $10 billion to build somewhere between zero and 17 new homes.
Instead of building housing, Labor are obsessed with building housing bureaucracies.
Treasury has now raised serious concerns about this, namely, the “responsiveness, capability and speed” of Housing Australia. In other words, Treasury are seeing what Australians are seeing: Labor’s housing bureaucracy isn't building new homes.
Treasury also confirmed Labor’s funding for enabling infrastructure, such as roads, power and water, critical for new homes - is dysfunctional.
Labor’s refusal to deal with these systemic issues shows they’re more interested in making building announcements than building homes.
Australians can’t live in a press release, they actually need new homes. Labor are now officially on notice from Treasury that they are not doing enough.