Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

The government certainly recognises that there are challenges in the construction industry associated with increasing costs. Much of that is to do with supply chain issues off the back of COVID. Some of it is to do with increasing labour costs.

But this government is committed to ensuring, firstly, as a foundation, that we are training more Australian tradespeople, and that is the philosophy behind the government announcing this week that fee-free TAFE will be permanent so that anyone who wants to do a trade in the construction area gets access to doing that trade and that we're training more Australians. That's the foundation. But where there is a requirement for additional labour, the government is putting in place a migration system that will allow employers to bring in skilled tradespeople for the construction sector as quickly as possible to supplement that labour. I reiterate that this government has brought in more skilled building workers in the last year than at any time over the last 10 years. So the government is responding to the needs of industry and to that increase in demand.

Secondly, of course, we're making sure that we've got the housing policies in place to build more houses and to increase housing supply. Those policies that are associated with increasing investments in social and affordable housing—such as the Housing Australia Future Fund, and Help to Buy, which is held up in the Senate—are all aimed at ensuring that we're increasing the housing supply and that more Australians get access to owning their own homes.

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