Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women. How is the government’s stimulus to the housing sector supporting jobs in our economy?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for his question. Despite the worst global recession in 75 years, we are weathering the storm here in Australia better than most other countries, and that is because of the action the government have taken through our Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan. Last week I visited the northern suburbs of Adelaide with the member for Wakefield to see firsthand some work in Elizabeth Grove. We met with Don Belperio, the owner of Lodge Construction, who has won a contract for nine major renovations. Work will start soon in the same area on building 30 new houses in the first stage of constructing new public housing. Mr Belperio told me:

Building work has picked up since the stimulus money. It was slacking off earlier in the year. I have had to put on more subcontractors—electricians, plasterers, concreters, ironworkers, floor covering specialists, gyprockers and labourers.

He told me that many of those jobs were for people who come from the local Elizabeth area, very important in generating local employment.

That is not just happening in Elizabeth. It is not just happening in Adelaide. It is happening right across the country. In Bega last week, with the member for Eden-Monaro, I met a local builder who was putting on extra contractors to put new kitchens into old public housing dwellings. Those new kitchens had been made by another small business just down the road in Eden.

In south-east Melbourne, with the member for Isaacs, I met a local builder who said, ‘The government initiatives are really keeping my industry buoyant.’ In Sydney’s inner west, with the member for Lowe, I met tradies who said that they were busier than ever repairing a house that will be retained as public housing for the long term, a beautiful older house in an older neighbourhood—a perfect home for a needy family. The government’s stimulus package is having an impact beyond these direct jobs: the repairs, maintenance and the new building. When I was visiting the member for Port Adelaide’s electorate, I visited Mawson Lakes, which is a very nice development. It is a well-planned community with a very good range of properties, including properties at the modest end suitable for first-home buyers. It is close to public transport. It is well planned. I met there one of the developers who is working in that area, a woman called Fairlie Delbridge, who is the managing director of her own company, Delcooke Property Group, which is building 20 units in that Mawson Lakes development. She said to me:

I had made a large investment in getting this development going. At the preliminary stage of the development I had only nine presales. Then the global financial crisis hit and I couldn’t get funding. Banks stopped lending. By the time the stimulus package was announced, I had 12 presales but the project still wasn’t bankable. When Housing South Australia purchased five units, it absolutely got my development over the line. With 17 presales it made the project eminently bankable. It green-lighted my whole project.

Ms Delbridge credits the nation-building economic stimulus package with making her project feasible and she told me she expects to have about 50 tradies on site for between eight and 12 months. Those jobs happened because of our investment and our cooperation with the South Australian government—the whole project green-lighted, with 50 jobs for between eight and 12 months. Those 50 jobs would not have happened without this investment.

Mawson Lakes shows that our investment in the stimulus package has kept this sector ticking over at a time when otherwise we would have seen a crash in this area. We have got plans for nation building for recovery. We have got plans for returning the budget to surplus. We now have the fastest economic growth in the world, the lowest deficit and the lowest debt of major advanced economies in the world. It would be absolutely terrific if the opposition acknowledged the strengths of the Australian economy at this difficult time instead of trashing our reputation and trashing confidence with their relentless negativity.